Hideo Kojima’s beloved video game franchise, Death Stranding, is expanding to the small screen. A new animated series adaptation is heading to Disney+, due to premiere sometime in 2027.
Launched in 2019 by Kojima Productions, Death Stranding became a bestseller and instant classic among video game fans, who praised its deep world-building and stunning cinematic visuals. The game was also highly estmeed for featuring renowned actors like Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, Troy Baker, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and Lindsay Wagner in prominent roles. A sequel game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, was released this summer. There’s also the previously announced feature film adaptation in the works at A24.
Kojima is confirmed to executive produce the animated series. The show will be directed by Takayuki Sano (Bullet/Bullet, Gridman Universe) with new concept art by Ilya Kuvshinov, who served as character designer for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.
Presenting the project in Hong Kong, Kojima also promised the series would have new and different characters. He revealed the series would employ traditional hand-drawn 2D animation style, with top Japanese animation studio E&H Production currently working on the project.
Per the synopsis: “Once, there was an explosion… Lonesome souls of the dead manifest in the physical world, reaching in search of the living. However, the connection they create triggers a massive explosion that eradicates anything of this world—a phenomenon referred to as the Death Stranding. These events wipe out nations, as well as civilization itself. People who remain are now isolated, withdrawn, and without connections. As humanity stands at the brink, a legendary porter set out to transport both cargo and wishes of its senders, reconnecting people in the hope that they might still be saved…
“[The series] follows in the footsteps of the original in spirit and ideas and depicts the world of Death Stranding through a bold and yet subtle touch and top-class hand-drawn animation.
“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 realise 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.”
Check out the Disney+ poster below:
