Former Metal Gear Solid voice actor David Hayter, who played the English voice for Solid Snake, has spoken in great detail about his dealings with Hideo Kojima en route to his being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland for Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain.

Hayter told Game Informer that Konami informed him that the team was going in a different direction for The Phantom Pain. On speaking with English casting director Kris Zimmerman, “‘We’re going forward, but it looks like they are going to try and replace you.’ They tried to do that before, and it never worked. They tried to get voice matches, and it never happened.”

Trouble was brewing for some time between Hayter and Kojima with the latter looking to replace the former. Hayter said, “I had to re-audition for Metal Gear 3 to play Naked Snake. They made me re-audition to play Old Snake, and the whole time, they were trying to find somebody else to do it. I heard that Kojima asked one of the producers on Metal Gear 3 to ask Kurt Russell if he would take over for that game. He didn’t want to do it.”

Hayter doesn’t blame Sutherland for replacing him though he wished things had ended better. “I don’t have any ill will toward Kiefer Sutherland or anything like that. The whole thing could have been handled better and a little more respectfully, but I’m not going to cry about it. I’ve got no particular love for Kojima. I don’t feel any need to go back and work with him again.”

That doesn’t mean he couldn’t be pulled back in to work on Metal Gear Solid titles produced by Konami in the future. Stay tuned for more information and let us know what you think in the comments.

Hideo Kojima is getting pumped for the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. Despite concerns about game length, the MGS creator is getting ready to release a comparison trailer for all version of the game and has now tweeted an image of the Limited Edition box for Japan.

“Yes. Yes. 1000 times, yes. @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN: Color sample of Japanese GZ limited BOX. pic.twitter.com/iHMQlY2Tc6”

— IAMALEXFINCH (@iamalexfinch) February 7, 2014

Meanwhile, new Solid Snake voice actor Kiefer Sutherland spoke to IGN about his experience with working on The Phantom Pain (the epilogue and major portion of Metal Gear Solid 5’s storyline). “Oh man, that’s been a gig and a half! I’ve been working on that for over a year.

“You know, I’ve got, like, 50 metal dots on my face, 50 cameras recording my every facial movement. The process and the technology and what I have to go through just to do a line, and what the engineers and technicians have to do, it’s unbelievable. But then when I saw it…There was a guy who was applying the dots and was just in charge of that part, and he was making his own game; he’s some technical wizard, and this game is supposed to be really cool.

“But they were showing us some stuff that they had just finished in Japan, and they were showing it back to us. It was this one little clip that’s final, final, final, and it’s me on a horse. I’m riding the horse, and then I go from a run to a lope to a walk, and then standing still. I don’t know a lot about games, so I’m watching it, and the guy who’s watching it with me goes, ‘Oh my God. Your ears moved.’

“Then he was looking at the throat, and he said, ‘You can see the pulse.’ I mean, it was so real, and all I kept thinking was, ‘This is how they’re going to make movies soon.’ They’re halfway there now, you know, but they’re going to make films like this. This is not far off. “

As for Snake, Sutherland said, “The character is one of the few things that they say is, ‘Lower!’ [raspy Snake voice] What are you gonna do? I’m talking, and I start sounding like Tom Waits. But I’ve really enjoyed it, and they’re really good people.”

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes will be releasing on March 18th in North America and March 20th in Europe for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Both director Hideo Kojima and his personal assistant Ayako Tateyama tweeted pictures of the same online, which you can check out below. We have to admit: He does look a little freaked out in the first picture.

キーファーがLAスタジオに来てくれた。 pic.twitter.com/3UaDkpmiY9

— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) October 10, 2013

Kiefer visited KOJIMA Productions LA studio this afternoon and had friendly greeting with our staff. pic.twitter.com/Plo4VEcYYg

— Ayako (Touchy!) (@Kaizerkunkun) October 10, 2013

Sutherland – and Kojima for that matter – has been under controversy due to the abrupt change in Snake’s voice from the days of David Hayter. That being said, we don’t doubt that Sutherland will be able to do justice to the role. Wait and watch as they say.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be releasing for Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One and PS4. Stay tuned for an official release date in the coming months.

Kiefer Sutherland, an actor in Hollywood films such as Melancholia, Phone Booth and Mirrors but most famous for TV roles such as Jack Bauer of 24 and The Touch, will be the new voice actor for Snake. Sutherland has experience voice acting for video games having voiced characters in Call of Duty: World at War, but this would obviously be a big step up for anyone.

Surprised? Former voice actor David Hayter seemed to anticipate a sort of backlash to the decision, and even posted on Twitter “Look, I tried to warn you..” and “Ah well, can’t fault @RealKiefer. Great actor, good man. The game will probably still be excellent. Like New Coke!”

Given the almost instantaneous nature of his reaction and the fact that it IS Kojima, we’re inclined to disbelieve just about anything right now. As for Metal Gear Solid V, no new gameplay trailer was showcased so we’ll need to wait till E3 itself for more details.

However, even if this is true, what are your thoughts on Sutherland as Snake?