Metal Gear Solid 5 wasn't the first time Konami tried to replace David Hayter

Metal Gear Solid fans were conflicted when it was revealed that longtime veteran voice actor David Hayter would no longer be playing the role of Snake - by which I mean Naked Snake, AKA Big Boss, and his clone, Solid Snake. But Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and its standalone prequel, Ground Zeroes, weren't the first time Hayter was set to be cut.

"I had to re-audition for Metal Gear [Solid] 3 to play Naked Snake," Hayter told Game Informer on a recent podcast. "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 [Solid] 3 to ask Kurt Russell if he would take over for that game."

When it came time for development on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, Hayter was not formally informed that he had been replaced. Instead, he said that he just happened to bump into one of the producers at a recording studio, the two got drinks, and he was told then that there would be no need for him to audition or work out a deal.

Hayter called the situation a "debacle," and said he doesn't plan to play either of the most recent entries. "That’ll be 60 hours of humiliation that I can’t get to," he said. "It's just too painful."

Lest you're holding out hope that Hayter might reunite with series creator Hideo Kojima now that the latter is free of Konami, well… don't. "I've got no particular love for Kojima," he told Game Informer. "I don't feel any need to go back and work with him again." Oof. I guess that, like the man I'll always remember him by, Hayter doesn't have any more tears to shed.

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