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Hideo Kojima took to his social media channels earlier today to announce Bill Skarsgård as the new lead for his upcoming stealth-action game, Physint. He also reaffirmed some of the game’s casting announcements from before it changed hands from PlayStation to Xbox after a seemingly messy split with Sony. Physint’s top-billed cast are:
- Bill Skarsgård
- Charlee Fraser
- Don Lee
- Minami Hambe
Alongside the casting announcement, Kojima shared a new poster for Physint featuring Skarsgård, Fraser, and the new tagline “The Next Cold War Begins.” Tucked away at the bottom is, perhaps, the most exciting news for me personally: Third-billed on production behind Hideo Kojima and Hideo Kojima is the GOAT, Yoji Shinkawa, on “character and mechanical design.”
The longtime Kojima collaborator and Metal Gear character artist also worked at Kojima Productions on Death Stranding, but it’s comforting to get confirmation he was unaffected by the recent production dust-up.
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Speaking of Physint’s continuity, Fraser, Lee, and Hamabe had all been confirmed in a prior Kojima Productions announcement about Physint’s cast. Skarsgård as leading man John Physint (working name) is the only new casting info—though, like with Shinkawa, it’s probably worth clarifying after everything that’s happened.
I was initially disappointed. Based on John Physint’s shadowy appearance in the game’s first teaser, I was hoping Kojima would spring for Robert Pattinson in the role. He’s a known gamer on a bit of an all-time career hot-streak, and feels like a perfect fit for Kojima’s oeuvre. Skarsgård was pretty great in Robert Eggers’ 2024 Nosferatu, though, and I can only hope he brings a similarly unsettling, sexual energy to Physint.
Kojima seems to be spinning up marketing for the game again now that Microsoft has scooped it from Sony. The PlayStation parent company reportedly cut Kojima off for going over budget and missing deadlines. There’s been no definitive word, but it’s hard to imagine that Kojima will be allowed to keep using Sony and Guerilla Games’ proprietary Decima engine (which also powered Death Stranding) now that he’s left the fold, potentially delaying this game that already felt like it was years away.
Kojima’s other big upcoming project, O.D.—also published by Xbox—looks much closer to release. Its “Knock” trailer from last year makes it look like a return to some of the ideas explored in Kojima’s legendary demo for the canceled Silent Hills, P.T.
