As one of the most celebrity-like figures in the games industry, it makes sense that Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima has quite a few well-known friends. Kojima’s Silent Hills playable teaser, P.T., famously featured a cameo from actor Norman Reedus, who would go on to star in Death Stranding. Besides Reedus, Death Stranding has amassed an impressive list of voice actors and celebrity likenesses, including visionary film directors, oft-heard video game voice actors, and television stars. In this Death Stranding voice actors guide, we’ll cover the full Death Stranding cast list.
Death Stranding Cast | Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro is a well-known film director, famous for his surreal, special effects-heavy titles, like Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, and The Shape of Water. While Kojima was at Konami, he collaborated with del Toro on Silent Hills, a reboot of the Silent Hill game franchise revealed with the P.T. demo. The project was cancelled in 2015, and while del Toro would not return for a directorial role in Kojima’s next project, Death Stranding, his likeness does appear as the character Deadman. Deadman’s role as the technician for the game’s Bridge Baby pods was revealed in a Death Stranding Gamescom 2019 trailer.
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Deadman’s voice actor is Jesse Corti, who has appeared in various animated films, cartoon series, and video games. Corti’s most famous role is perhaps his voice work for Gaston’s sidekick, Lefou, in the original Beauty and the Beast movie.
Death Stranding cast | Norman Reedus
Reedus stars as Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding, the game’s playable protagonist. Reedus is most well known for his role as Daryl Dixon in the Walking Dead television series, having starred in 136 episodes (more than any other cast member) from 2010 to 2019. Reedus also starred as one of the two protagonists of the Boondock Saints films and as the character Scud in Blade 2, and his first ever film role was as the character Jeremy in the 1997 Guillermo del Toro film, Mimic.
As previously mentioned, Reedus was set to star in Silent Hills, but his relationship with Kojima didn’t end when the project was cancelled. Kojima tweeted a photo of his reunion with Reedus in 2016, where they spoke about Kojima’s new company, Kojima Productions. Kojima was apparently able to then utilize both Reedus and del Toro as key faces in Death Stranding, despite the death of their previous project.
Reunion with Norman Reedus. Giving update about my own company. pic.twitter.com/1yWMWWGT3q
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) February 16, 2016
Death Stranding cast | Mads Mikkelsen
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen plays Cliff in Death Stranding. Mikkelsen is most famous for his role as Hannibal Lecter in the Hannibal television series, and he also played roles in Marvel’s Doctor Strange and in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Not much is known about Mikkelsen’s character, but Kojima said in a 2016 panel discussion that Cliff is a rival to Sam. He appears to be a part of some kind of supernatural military group, possibly associated with the Homo Demens faction.
Death Stranding cast | Léa Seydoux
French actress Léa Seydoux plays Fragile. Again, not much is known about Fragile (not much is known about the game in general, after all). She was revealed in the Death Stranding E3 2018 trailer, speaking to Sam about “chiral allergies” and “the extinction factor.” Seydoux starred as Emma in French film Blue Is the Warmest Color and has played supporting roles in movies such as Midnight in Paris, Inglourious Basterds, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Death Stranding cast | Margaret Qualley
Margaret Qualley was revealed as the character Mama in the aforementioned Gamescom 2019 Death Stranding footage. She is unable to leave a certain room, on account of the fact that she’s tethered to her baby, who is a ghost-like entity born on the “other side.” Qualley previously appeared as a character in HBO’s The Leftovers, in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and in the Netflix live action movie adaptation of Death Note.
Death Stranding cast | Tommie Earl Jenkins
Tommie Earl Jenkins plays Die-Hardman (not to be confused with Deadman, or, you know, Die Hard) in Death Stranding. He was seen in a leaked Death Stranding briefing trailer, originally shown only to attendees of Gamescom 2019. Die-Hardman wears a black skull mask and seems to play a role as one of the game’s quest givers, instructing Sam to travel across the United Cities of America and rescue Amelie (more on her below). Jenkins has played supporting roles in various television shows, movies, and games, including How to Get Away with Murder, World of Warcraft, and Fallout 76.
Death Stranding cast | Lindsay Wagner
Most famous for her starring role in The Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner plays Amelie in Death Stranding. Amelie was also featured in the leaked Gamescom footage. She is apparently the daughter of a recently deceased fictional American President. Her goal is to reunite the United Cities of America, so she and Die-Hardman ask Sam to reactivate “chiral network terminals” across the country with the use of a “Q-Pid” device. Sam will also have to rescue Amelie from the Homo Demens faction in Edge Knot City.
Death Stranding cast | Troy Baker
Think of a video game, and there’s a good chance Troy Baker played a voice in it. Baker became a well-known face in the industry around 2013, when he played the starring role in both The Last of Us and BioShock Infinite. Since then, his number of roles has remained steadily large, and he’s secured big video game roles like Nathan Drake’s brother in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Bruce Banner/Hulk in the upcoming Marvel’s Avengers game.
In Death Stranding, Baker provides the voice and performance acting for Higgs, a member of the Homo Demens faction and appears to be the game’s main antagonist. Higgs sports a hood and a golden skull mask. He possesses some kind of supernatural powers, enabling him to summon a large, four-legged beast in the TGS 2018 Death Stranding trailer.
Death Stranding cast | Unannounced characters, additional voice actors, and cameos
In addition to these major actors and roles, several other celebrity cameos and roles have been announced for Death Stranding. The appearance of character Heartman, for example, is based on the likeness of film director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, The Neon Demon). Revealed in a July character spotlight trailer, Heartman is a member of the BRIDGES organization who dies every 21 minutes and then brought back to life by a defibrillator strapped to his chest. Refn does not provide Heartman’s voice. The character is instead portrayed by voice actor Darren Jacobs (Dragon Age: Inquisition).
Kojima and The Game Awards Host Geoff Keighley revealed at Gamescom 2019 that Death Stranding will contain a Geoff Keighley cameo. Keighley appears as one of the NPCs Sam can encounter in his delivery-based adventures and is voiced by well-known voice actor and Critical Role host Matthew Mercer (Attack on Titan, Overwatch). Kojima and company said at Gamescom that Keighley’s cameo is just one of many, so it’s likely that more celebrity likenesses will appear across the game’s world.
So far, only one actor has been revealed without a character attached. Paste Magazine reported in February 2018 that English actress Emily O’Brien (Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series) posted a since-deleted Instagram photo that announced she was joining the project. Who her character is — and whether or not the character will actually end up appearing in the game — is currently unknown.
