Since release in 2019, Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding video game has attracted over 20 million players with its blend of cinematic ambition, metaphysical mystery, lingering existential dread and lots and lots of walking. And now the franchise is spinning off in directions we never imagined.
A second game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was released for PlayStation 5 in June, there's also a two-part novelisation. A24's live-action movie adaptation is slated for a 2027 release, and Kojima Productions also has an animated movie, tentatively named Death Stranding Mosquito, in the works with Line Mileage.
Kojima announced Death Stranding Isolations personally at the Disney+ Originals Preview at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort on Thursday.
We're told the series will have a separate story from the two video games but will follow their spirit and ideas, depicting the world of Death Stranding through a traditional 2D animation style with what Disney describes as a “bold and yet subtle touch”.
The credits are encouraging. The series will be directed by Takayuki Sano with original character design by Ilya Kuvshinov, the character designer for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. Animation will be handled by E&H production, which made Bullet/Bullet and Ninja Kamui.
For those unfamiliar with Death Stranding, it's set in a world where civilisation has been destroyed by souls of the dead who create a massive explosion (referred to as Death Stranding) as they manifest themselves. The survivors are left isolated, and it takes a porter transporting cargo and their wishes to reconnect humanity.
The series will tell a new story about a young man and woman who set out on an adventure. As per the synopsis: “Somewhere in North America, just as Sam Bridges walks through the continent in order to save America, the someones are also trying to deal with their isolation in their own way.
“An old man trying to realize salvation through ways outside of the connection advocated by Bridges. A female warrior who tries to kickstart a world of constant fighting. A boy with a grudge against Bridges. A girl who embraces loneliness.
“On the precipice of the end of humanity and the world, their fates and hopes converge, as another story of Death Stranding begins.”
Fans are torn over the news. There's excitement over the prospect of not one but two Death Stranding animes coming up and intrigue at what will come out of Kojima working with Ilya Kuvshinov. But the decision to go with Disney+ rather than, say Crunchyroll, is raising eyebrows.
Some think Disney's record with Bad Batch and later Clone Wars and Visions bodes well, but others fear Disney could try to put its own stamp on the series.
“So BT’s [the ghost-like Beached Things] are going to be cute pets in this too… maybe even some kind of princess,” one person forecasts on the Instagram post above. “I literally can't wait to see stillborn babies and homoerotic love between two amazing actors on a DISNEY show!” another person comments.
“Part of me is like, 'hell yeah that story is already as Anime af' the other part of me is mad that it won't be about what Death Stranding is really about: some dude spending half an hour lugging 3000kg of ceramics up a mountain just to build part of a road,” one fan writes on Reddit.
Some suggest Kojima is going with Disney as it's a known brand in Japan, but it could just be that this was the best deal and also the one that will offer the most exposure for the series.
Kojima's weirdest ideas have shown him to be a maverick auteur in video game design. We'll now see how that translates into television and animation. Death Stranding Isolations will stream on Disney+ in 2027.
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