Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s Living Puppet Character Detailed by Kojima

In typical Hideo Kojima fashion, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s recent State of Play trailer was full of bizarre oddities that have set the internet aflame with all manner of theories and discussions, and among all the things that were shown in the lengthy trailer, a living, talking puppet who accompanies protagonist Sam and moves at half frame rate in particular has turned quite a few heads.

Taking recently to Twitter, Kojima offered more details on the character, whose name is still unknown. With his likeness based on Turkish-German film director Fatih Akin and his voice provided by American actor Jonathan Roumie (best known for his role in The Chosen), the puppet’s character is described by Kojima as “very energetic and funny”. As per Kojima, he “supports” Sam “despite his sadness.”

“I have been friends with director Fatih Akin since he came to Japan for In the Fade (introduced through Norman’s wife, Diane Kruger) promotion and we had an interview for Japanese media outlet (2018),” Kojima wrote. “At that time. he told me he would love to become one of the characters in the game, so I came up with a character for Fatih, a ‘living doll’ to share the journey with Sam. His character is very energetic and funny, and despite his sadness, he supports Sam. I already had a rough draft of the character design and setup before DS1 was released, but after experiencing the pandemic in real life, I decided to discard all the scenarios I had prepared before and rewrote them, but kept the ‘living doll’ as it was. The voice and acting was done by Jonathan Roumie, popular for his work on the TV drama The Chosen.”

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to introduce a number of new characters, though of course, several familiar faces will also be returning, including Fragile (played by Lea Seydoux) and the aforementioned Sam (played by Norman Reedus). However, one key character from the first game who won’t be returning is Mads Mikkelsen’s Cliff.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will launch for PS5 in 2025.

I have been friends with director Fatih Akin since he came to Japan for "In the Fade" (introduced thru Norman's wife, Diane Kruger) promotion and we had an interview for Japanese media outlet (2018). At that time he told me he would love to become one of the characters in the… pic.twitter.com/nPSeer5wlM

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) February 3, 2024