DS2 (Working Title)

**Death Stranding 2**, stylized as **DS2** and clarified to be a working title, is a video game developed by Kojima Productions, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5. It is written and directed by Hideo Kojima, who also direct the first game. The game was officially announced during the TGA 2022, with no release date yet confirmed.

It's the the upcoming second installment to the Death Stranding series.

## Story

### Characters and cast

In *Death Stranding 2* Norman Reedus return as Sam Porter Bridges, Léa Seydoux as Fragile and Troy Baker as, presumably, Higgs. Nicolas Winding Refn should come back as Heartman, while Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna have been cast in unannounced roles.

## Development

### Initial phase

Already a month after the release of the first game, through his official Twitter account, Nicolas Winding Refn, who plays Heartman, publishes a rather intriguing twitter, with the text that reads only "Dear friend" and attached a photo depicting the director in the company of Hideo Kojima, on which we find the words "**Heartman will return**" written. During an interview for LEO, Norman Reedus to the question "Okay, so you got the book going on, you've got the final season coming out, then the spinoff, and you're filming Death Stranding, the video game." he replied with “We just started the second one.” confirming the production of the sequel. Immediately after Hideo Kojima publishes a tweet to "rebuke" Reedus even if in a joking tone.

### Teasing and reveal

During the Tokyo Game Show 2022, a teaser poster is published, by scanning a QR code present in the VR recreation of the Kojima productions offices, which bears the words "WHO AM I?" and showing a girl with long light hair and a face hidden by the dark, the image is later renamed **0XF7K4P59BX0** on the Kojima Productions website. The following month, via a tweet on Twitter, Kojima let it be known that “The answer to “WHO” at TGS will be in the next “WHERE.” Later on Kojima published a second teaser poster, always showing a brown-haired girl with bangs and an obscured face but which bears the words "WHERE AM I?"  and a tweet that reads "The answer to "WHO" at TGS will be in the next “WHERE”. ” The doubts about the poster "WHO AM I?" are dissolved at PAX Australia 2022 where, by scanning a QR code accompanying the poster, a photo of Elle Fanning is revealed with the caption "A Hideo Kojima Game x Elle Fanning." and with "threads" running down, the image is then named **CA8M9GKX1P60** on the site. Throughout this period Hideo Kojima is engaged in remote motion capture sessions with the subsidiary in Los Angeles and video editing   On October 8, Kojima tweeted Elle Fanning's 3D scanning session.

On October 10, the actor Tommie Earl Jones, who plays Die-Hardman in *Death Stranding*, publishes the phrase on his Twitter account: "Something's coming! Are you ready? ”, maybe suggesting a possible return of his character. Later on October 13 Kojima publishes a shot of a video call between him and Nicolas Winding Refn.  On October 20, Kojima tweeted that he met Indian director S.S. Rajamouli and with the occasion his face is scanned.   In October 28th WOODKID, musician and creator of the theme for the trailer of the *Director's Cut* version of DS, is scanned.  On October 31, Kojima publishes a tweet with the words “From “WHERE” to “HOW” ” and attached an image with the same stylized icon present in the first poster “WHO AM I?”.

On November 01, the Insider Gaming site find a hidden image on the Kojima Productions site where the actress of the poster "WHERE AM I?" is revealed, it is Shioli Kutsuna. The gif then reveals a second poster with the caption "HOW COME?" on a black background and below the logo of what looks like a marine creature.  News later confirmed with a tweet by Kojima of the actress's 3D scanning session.  At the end of November Kojima is in California, presumably in the KJP subsidiary, to follow the motion capture filming in which the actress Shioli Kutsuna is present.   A few days later, Kojima publishes three logos, two of which have already been seen in the WHO and HOW posters, with the wording “Start a new journey ”.

On December 7, the day before TGA 2022, Kojima published a tweet containing the two previous posters plus a third new one, with a face similar to Fragile, with the words ""WHO" "WHERE" "HOW" and now "WHY". ”  During the TGA 2022, Kojima officially reveal *Death Stranding 2*, stylized in *DS2*, with a reveal trailer that confirming the presence of Fragile, an aged Sam and also Troy Baker in the cast, although it is not confirmed that his character is again Higgs.  During is talk on the stage, Kojima did confirm that he wrote the story before and during the Coronavirus Pandemic, but as he humoursly said, he changed some of the story in the game to "not predict the future".

During the 16th Spotify Podcast of Hideo Kojima, Norman Reedus confirm that his mo-cap sessions for Death Stranding 2 are "just now starting" and Kojima also added that DS2 will feel "nostalgic" for fans of the original but also feel new for those who weren't, that the technology has improved a lot over the past 3 years with things are possible now that weren't before and that DS2 is "not just a regular sequel."

### Scanning and dubbing sessions

On January 10, 2023, CHVRCHES, the band who released the original song Death Stranding as the lead single of the album *Death Stranding: Timefall* for the first game, made visit to Kojima Productions, possibly hinting a new collaboration.  The next day the band have their faces scanned.  On February 13, Kojima is in London where he meets WOODKID , Lea Seydoux and Elle Fanning  for a series of dubbing sessions    at the **Molinare Studio**.   On March 1, the Taiwanese director Kevin Ko, visit Kojima Productions, wich gift to Kojima a box art of his film horror film "Zhou" , during the visit he was scanned, confirming his "little part" in DS2 .

After the dubbing sessions, in April, Kojima is again in the U.S. with the entire cast, so far, for a series of performance capture shots.   In a later performance capture shots, in May , the participation of children  on the set suggests their presence in the game as well, whether as holograms, NPCs, or active characters is not yet known. Ludvig Forssell, ex-composer of KJP and now freelance, is also present during this session.

On July 5, singer and songwriter Daichi Miura made visit to Kojima Productions and was scanned, hinting the return of the Musician or a new character.  On September 14, a series of tweets confirm Yuji Shimomura as the director of action scenes  and the presence of Mamoru Oshii as an actor during a motion capture sequence.  On September 20, Kojima is again at the Molinare Studio in London, this time with Shioli Kutsuna and Lea Seydoux for another dubbing session.  In November 22, Kojima is again at the mixer machine, hinting the editing of a video/trailer.  On December 4, a few days before TGA 23, a Guerrilla Games team  and Hermen Hulst  made visit to Kojima Productions and gave Kojima a statuette of one of the Horizon's machines. Two days later, on December 6, Kojima tweet in a plane above Los Angeles, with Geoff Keighley commenting with:"Safe travels wherever you are headed!", suggesting Kojima's presence at the TGA 23. Unfortunately, although present at the conference, Kojima did not show any trailer for DS2 at TGA2023 but a teaser for **OD**, his horror title for Microsoft.

During an interview with Josh Horowitz, Elle Fanning, who play an unannounced role in DS2, reveal that she has done mocap sessions with both Léa Seydoux and Norma Reedus, and that Reedus is the "main guy", confirming that players will play the character of Sam in the sequel as well. Through a post at the end/beginning of the year, Kojima reveals that DS2 still has some ADR, **Automated Dialogue Replacement**, left, and after this they will start recording Japanese voice overs", thus suggesting a very advanced state of work.

## Gallery

### Trailers

DEATH STRANDING 2（Working Title）- TGA 2022 Teaser Trailer
## References

1. **^** Twitter – "*Refn tweet on Heartman return on DS2*"
2. **^** LEO – "*Reedus confirm is role in DS2*"
3. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima reactiond to the Reedus interview*"
4. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima answer to WHO poster*"
5. **^** Twitter – "*WHERE AM I?*"
6. **^** Twitter – "*The answer*"
7. **^** Twitter – "*Motion session 1*"
8. **^** Twitter – "*Motion session 2*"
9. **^** Twitter – "*Elle Fanning 3D session*"
10. **^** Twitter – "*Die-Hardman return?*"
11. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima and NWR videocall*"
12. **^** Twitter – "*S.S.Rajamouli face scan session*"
13. **^** Twitter – "*S.S.Rajamouli face scan session 2*"
14. **^** Twitter – "*WOODKID face scan session*"
15. **^** Twitter – "*From “WHERE” to “HOW” tweet*"
16. **^** Twitter – "*Insider Gaming find a new poster in KJP site*"
17. **^** Twitter – "*Shioli Kutsuna 3D scan session*"
18. **^** Twitter – "*Motion capture session with Shioli*"
19. **^** Twitter – "*Motion capture session with Shioli 2*"
20. **^** Twitter – "*Poster with three logos*"
21. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima publish a new poster a day before TGA22*"
22. **^** Youtube – "*DS2 reveal trailer at TGA22*"
23. **^** Spotify – "*Reedus mo-cap sessions*"
24. **^** Twitter – "*CHVRCHES made a visit to Kojima Productions*"
25. **^** Twitter – "*CHVRCHES are 3D scanned*"
26. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima in London with WOODKID*"
27. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima in London with WOODKID*"
28. **^** Twitter – "*Dubbing session 1*"
29. **^** Twitter – "*Dubbing session 2*"
30. **^** Twitter – "*Dubbing session 3*"
31. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima at Molinare studio 1*"
32. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima at Molinare studio 2*"
33. **^** Twitter – "*Kevin Ko at KJP*"
34. **^** Twitter – "*Kevin Ko 3D scan*"
35. **^** Twitter – "*performance capture shot 1*"
36. **^** Twitter – "*performance capture shot 2*"
37. **^** Twitter – "*performance capture shot 3*"
38. **^** Twitter – "*performance capture shot 4*"
39. **^** Twitter – "*children in motion capture suit*"
40. **^** Twitter – "*Forssell and Kojima*"
41. **^** Twitter – "*Miura with Kojima*"
42. **^** Twitter – "*Miura 3D scan*"
43. **^** Twitter – "*Yuji Shimomura and his team*"
44. **^** Twitter – "*Mamoru Oshii motion capture*"
45. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima and Shioli in London*"
46. **^** Twitter – "*MIX*"
47. **^** Twitter – "*Guerrilla team*"
48. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima and Hermen*"
49. **^** Twitter – "*Horizon's statuette*"
50. **^** Twitter – "*Kojima above LA*"
51. **^** Youtube – "*Elle Fanning on mocap sessions*"
52. **^** State of work on DS2