Death Stranding's Norman Reedus looks back: "I like the fact that Silent Hills didn’t happen, to be honest"

(Image credit: Sony)

Death Stranding never would have existed if Silent Hills had made it past P.T., and Norman Reedus is happy with the way everything worked out in the end. The actor, who plays Death Stranding protagonist Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding and an unnamed hero who was teased at the end of P.T., recently reflected on what led to him starring in both of Kojima Productions' latest projects in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

It started with a phone call from Guillermo del Toro, who told Reedus that somebody would ask him to do a video game soon, and that Reedus should just say yes. That's how Reedus met Kojima and became involved with Silent Hills, which was first revealed to the world at the end of P.T. Kojima split from Konami afterward, taking some of his eponymously named studio with him.

"Then they came back and said Sony’s back in with Hideo and we’re going to make a brand-new game," Reedus said. "I was more excited about that, to be honest, because Hideo came down to San Diego Comic-Con and had an iPad and was showing me some of the graphics he was working on, which were just mind-blowing. I knew it was going to be a home run right from the get-go."

Going from Silent Hills to Death Stranding was "completely different,' Reedus explained. Though P.T. was a shock - no, Reedus hasn't played it, but he has watched, and "it's terrifying" - people knew roughly what it would be about from their experiences with previous games in the series.

"When that went away, I was bummed, but when Hideo described what we were doing next, I completely forgot about it. I was like, thank God that didn’t work, because this is way better. This is a completely different thing [...] I like the fact that Silent Hills didn’t happen, to be honest, because I’ve gotten such a peek into the way he works and the way he thinks, and I’m completely blown away by this guy."

Maybe it isn't quite as good as becoming best friends with Hideo Kojima, but you'll still be blown away by the savings in our guide to upcoming Black Friday game deals. 

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.