"In the future, I would like to offer something to Keanu": Kojima teases a breathtaking collaboration for his next project

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Keanu Reeves may have been nixed from Death Stranding, but Kojima isn't ruling out working with him in the future

(Image credit: Twitter)

Death Stranding has had quite the week, with reams of new gameplay and fresh info via a series of interview with the game's creator, Hideo Kojima, who has revealed his interest in a Death Stranding sequel and even admitted the game won't get entertaining till about halfway through the story. 

Now, in yet another interview with GameSpot, the famed game developer has opened up about his admission that Keanu Reeves nearly starred in Death Stranding as the character now played by Mads Mikkelsen. In classic Kojima fashion, his explanation is rather lengthy, but worth reading in full below: 

"I have a close friend, Nicholas Refn," Kojima tells GameSpot. "He introduced me to Mads and I made an offer to Mads to be in the game. I went to Denmark and talked to Nicholas again before I gave the offer to Mads, and I said I met Mads a couple of times but I really wanted to reconfirm with Nicholas that I really should work with Mads."

Kojima continues: "Nicholas said, ‘I made Mads grow. He’s great, but the best guy is Keanu,’ and he was doing Neon Demon at the time. So he was trying to persuade me to use Keanu, and I thought maybe I will change from Mads to Keanu. We were having this dinner, and there was this chef, and I called the chef and told him I’m thinking of using Mads, and asked what he thought. Even the chef said maybe Keanu is better, even though he liked Mads a lot. But I did write the character for Mads, imagining him, so I am very happy that I offered it to Mads in the end."

Basically, the reason we're not getting a Keanu Reeves video game double bill over the next six months (since the actor is already appearing in Cyberpunk 2077 in April 2020) is thanks to a chef who also happened to be a big Mads Mikkelsen fan. Cool cool cool. Still, Kojima doesn't rule out working with the Matrix 4 actor at a later date.

"Keanu is a great guy, and in the future it would be great if we could work together”, he admits. “It could be a game, or maybe a movie or TV I might work on, so maybe next time. But I want to say Mads is really great. When I met Keanu, I was shocked that he was so polite; a real good guy. We are only one year apart in age, so the appreciation towards a lot of things are similar, I think. So in the future, I would like to offer something to Keanu.”

Check out more Death Stranding gameplay below, or read up on all the other big new games of 2019 and beyond still on the way.

Alex Avard
Alex Avard
Former Features Writer

Alex is a former Features Writer at GamesRadar+, which once made him responsible for gracing the internet with as many of my words as possible, including reviews, previews, interviews, and more. Lucky internet!