I need scissors! 61! The Metal Gear Solid movie will embrace the stranger side of the series, according to the director

If you’ve ever picked up a Metal Gear Solid game in your life then you’ll know the series tends to, frankly, get a bit weird. From reading your memory card to making you play as a foppish whiner in its hotly-anticipated sequel, Hideo Kojima’s baby has never been one to play it by the books. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear, then, that Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of the Metal Gear Solid movie, is intent on keeping all the elements that make Metal Gear… well, Metal Gear.

Speaking to Screen Rant at San Diego Comic Con 2018, the Kong: Skull Island director gave us the most open look yet at what to expect from the upcoming video game adaptation.

“You know the beauty of Metal Gear and the reason I give our producers and the studio a ton of credit,” Vogt-Roberts said, “Is because I went in and said, 'Let's embrace the fact that this is weird.' Let's embrace the fact that there are supernatural elements to this game that are horror elements to this game.”

Sounds promising and, whisper it, almost certainly confirms the existence of a Psycho Mantis or The Sorrow-type figure cropping up in the game. But it gets better.

Remember Metal Gear Solid 3’s minutes-long Codec calls on Japanese cinema and how, yes, Solid Snake can get a bit solid (for lack of a better term) when seeing a poster of a model draped on the inside of a locker? It doesn’t fit – and yet it elevates Metal Gear Solid above the rest because it’s a series not scared to alleviate the melodrama with a spot of silliness. That’s staying too, as Vogt-Roberts explains:

“Let's embrace the fact that there are weird Japanese quirkiness and idiosyncrasies and oddities that are all framed around this very self-serious world and let's lean into those things and let's have it be unique and unlike anything else because it represents those things and let's have the rest of the world fall in love with it because of that as opposed to trying to make it something else.”

If it wasn’t certain enough already, it’s clear that the Metal Gear Solid movie is in more than capable hands with Jordan Vogt-Roberts at the helm (and Hideo Kojima by his side). Now, the question remains: what bizarre MGS moment do you want in the movie? Let us know down below!

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.