When the new character Neil – played by Luca Marinelli – was first revealed through a Death Stranding 2: On the Beach trailer released back in March, comparisons were immediately made with Solid Snake, the protagonist of director Hideo Kojima’s other major franchise, Metal Gear Solid. In a recent talk at the Sydney Film Festival, Kojima revealed that even Marinelli had seen the similarities, going as far as to believe that he was actually portraying Snake when he was cast for the role of Neil.
As caught by GamesRadar, Kojima told Marinelli that, “no, you’re not Snake. You just have a bandana on your head!” This was a response to Marinelli saying “Oh Snake is wonderful. I’m so happy to be Snake,” as a response to being originally cast as Neil.
“I needed someone who can top Mads [Mikkelsen] and Cliff,” explained Kojima. “I thought Luca could do it. His acting was just so, so spectacular. Léa [Seydoux] comes in, or Norman [Reedus] comes in, and they’re usually on their phones. But then, when Luca started to perform, everyone put their phones down and concentrated.”
When Marinelli was first revealed as a member of the cast in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima had written about his decisions to cast the actor. In a lengthy social media post, he wrote about how he first came to know about Marinelli thanks to his role as the antagonist in the Italian movie They Call Me Jeeg. Ultimately, the two spoke in 2020, culminating in Marinelli revealing to Kojima how he was a fan of the Metal Gear franchise.
“During the pandemic, I was casting for Death Stranding 2. Neil would be an important role that replaces Cliff from Death Stranding 1,” wrote Kojima. “The fans would not be satisfied unless the casting would surpass Mads.”
Kojima also wrote about speaking through an online call while Marinelli was working on The Eight Mountains and ended up pitching Death Stranding 2 to the actor.
“After that, I Zoom called with Luca once he was home, pitched the idea of DS2, and he agreed to play the role,” Kojima wrote. “When I told him I was looking for someone to play Lucy, he introduced me to his wife, Alissa, who is also an actress (and filmmaker). We did their scan and performance capture during the height of the pandemic, but their on-set performance was excellent.
“You can see that in the digitized results from even the small bits of the trailer. I can only thank Luca and Alissa for agreeing to perform when we didn’t even have a script yet.”
Leading up to the June 26 release date of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima Productions has released new video to help players get caught up with the story of the base game. While the trailer weighs in at 6 minutes in length, it tends to tell a more abridged version of Death Stranding’s story, leaving plenty of surprises for players that might decide to revisit the title.
In the meantime, here are our thoughts on how Death Stranding 2: On the Beach might end up delivering the Metal Gear experience we’ve been waiting for.