'Death Stranding' News: Guillermo Del Toro Clarifies He's Just 'Cheerleader' In Creative Process
Well-known director Guillermo del Toro recently set the record straight and claims that he is just a "cheerleader" when it comes to the creative process put into the upcoming open world action video game "Death Stranding."
In the presentation of a new trailer for "Death Stranding" during the annual The Game Awards held last December 2016, fans were delighted to see a computer-generated imagery version of del Toro in the teaser video. It led many to think that he and Hideo Kojima, the mastermind of the game, are back working together.
However, in a recent interview with IGN, del Toro made it clear that the extent of his involvement does not go beyond being a character and a cheerleader. According to del Toro he is just involved as a character in the game and added: "Kojima-san called me and said, 'I want you to be a character in the game,' and I said, 'Gladly.' He's discussed his ideas so I could understand the character, but other than that I'm not involved, creatively, at all."
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Del Toro insisted that "Death Stranding" is purely Kojima's creation and added that he is confident the game is going to be 100 percent fantastic. He told IGN: "I'm just a puppet in his hands. My contribution is limited to being a cheerleader for his ideas and being scanned for long hours at a time."
In the same trailer where the "Trollhunters" director was featured, Kojima Productions also confirmed a long-time rumor that "Hannibal" actor Mads Mikkelsen would be part of the game as well. Mikkelsen joins "The Walking Dead" star Norman Reedus.
Del Toro and Kojima's partnership go a long way back as they worked together on the canceled game project "Silent Hills" that was supposed to be published by Konami. At the time it was canceled, Kojima left the game studio and put up his own production team that's now working on "Death Stranding" with Guerrilla Games.
In a 2015 interview, del Toro said that he has decided to never be involved again with making video games, adding he has "proven to be the albatross of video games." He mentioned that THQ went broke after he joined the studio and Kojima left Konami. However, by the looks of it, he seems to still have the passion for the gaming industry but chooses to quietly be involved.
As for "Death Stranding's" release date, Kojima is yet to make an announcement about it but dropped a major clue during the Tokyo Game Show last September 2016 that the game could be released between 2018 and 2019.
