Ever since we first saw that TGA 2016 trailer with Guillermo Del Toro clutching a baby in a pod while Mads Mikkelsen marched down a tunnel with four soldiers on a leash, we knew that Death Stranding would be a game filled with big names. And we haven’t even had to namedrop Norman Reedus naked on an interdimensional beach!
There are plenty more famous faces in Death Stranding, with the vast majority of them being appearing briefly as chiralgrams - essentially holographic projections - that you encounter in friendly bases throughout the game. Here are some of our favourite celebrity cameos in Death Stranding.
Tommy Wirkola as Phillip North - (Central Region)
Oddball Norwegian film director Tommy Wirkola is, like Hideo Kojima, all about subversion. His films Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, are a /bit/ less serious than Death Stranding in tone, though he’s currently working on an adaptation of gritty comic Irredeemable.
Herman Hulst as The Craftsman (Central Region)
With its post-post-apocalyptic theme and open world, Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn is a natural rival to Death Stranding, but that hasn’t stopped Guerrilla CEO Herman Hulst making an appearance. Death Stranding runs on Guerrilla’s Decima Engine, so Kojima has been working closely with the Dutch developer.
Jordan Vogt-Robert as the Film Director (Central Region)
The only cameo in the game that actually matches the person’s in-game profession to their real-life one, Jordan Vogt-Robert is a director best known for Kong: Skull Island and The Kings of Summer. He’s also a Metal Gear Solid fan, and is currently adapting the game for the big screen.
Sam Lake as Veteran Porter (Central Region)
Sam Lake is the head of Remedy Entertainment, which has brought us Max Payne, as well as the dimension-screwy Alan Wake, Quantum Break and Control. If he looks uncannily familiar, that’s because a scan of his face was used for the original Max Payne.
Errolson Hugh as Alex Weatherstone (Central Region)
For those of you who have never heard of Acronym, it’s a Berlin-based clothing brand with a futuristic edge (it worked on costume designs for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided). So you could say that giving a cameo to Acronym founder Errolson Hugh in Death Stranding is (ahem) a perfect fit.
Conan O’Brien as Wandering MC (Central Region)
Veteran American talkshow host Conan O’Brien at one point visited Kojima Productions for his Team Coco YouTube channel. During the visit, O’Brien got mo-capped and added into the final game, complete with an otter hoodie.
Edgar Wright as Thomas Southerland (Central Region)
Who knew that Hideo Kojima was a fan of English sitcom Spaced? Ok, it’s more likely that he knows director Edgar Wright for his later work on Shaun of the Dead, Marvel’s Ant-Man and Baby Driver, but we can always dream that Kojima has a secret penchant for cult British comedy
Junji Ito as The Engineer (Central Region)
Not a household name in the west, but manga fans may know him as the artist behind classic horror comics Okomie, Gyo and the highly creepy Uzumaki. Ito’s obsession with symbolism and otherworldly beings resonates perfectly with the themes of Death Stranding.
Geoff Keighley as Ludens Fan (Eastern Region)
Veteran games journo and ubiquitous game awards show host Geoff Keighley is famously a fan of Kojima’s, which is captured in his Death Stranding cameo. He can’t stop babbling on about his adoration of ‘the creator’, who we can safely assume is a reference to Kojima.
There are quite a few more familiar faces and a whole basket of easter eggs throughout Death Stranding. To start hunting for them, you can now grab the game on Steam and Epic Games Store.
