Kojima Productions' mascot gets a (possibly familiar) face and a new tagline

Kojima Productions has given us a new look at its mascot / potential protagonist of its first game, and the internet is already abuzz with speculation about those familiar blue eyes. No, this isn't another case of creepy unblinking half-masks, like with "Joakim Mogren" in the lead up to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. It's at least 50 percent less creepy.

First, here's the new picture of Ludens in his "Extravehicular Creative Activity Suit", as shared with GameSpot. The skull inside the helmet is indeed another mask and Ludens definitely isn't an undead skeleton astronaut. Oh well.

Check out that catchphrase: "I'll keep coming", a nod to the death and rebirth of Kojima's game development career and probably a tease of the character's attitude. But it might go deeper than that. Remember how Kojima and Norman Reedus kept hanging out long after Silent Hills, the game Reedus was set to star in, got canceled? Here's Twitter user Tarak Chami laying out an intriguing theory.

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Reedus has very distinct eyes, and those could easily be his peepers peering out through the transparent helmet (the skull mask conveniently obscures the rest of the face). And that could be Reedus' shoulder-length, unkempt hair poking out from under the mocap equipment in a photo from March… perhaps recording a performance for a debut trailer at Sony's E3 press conference? It's just another E3 rumor so far, but I've got a feeling it will keep coming, too.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.