Hideo Kojima is notorious for not shying away from casting some of Hollywood’s biggest names for his video game projects, andhis new horror experience ODin partnership with Xbox Game Studios is the latest example. After all, he consumes a lot of movies and television, which tells him the exact performances he wants to utilize.

If there’s one Triple-A studio that’s wildly more innovative and pushing the boundaries of the medium more than Remedy, it’sKojima Productions. One look at the OD trailer, and you’ll be puzzled as to the concept but dumbfounded at how lifelike all the actors' faces look. So, who are they?

Hideo Kojima’s History With Movie And TV Actors In His Games

OD is not the first game to see some big Hollywood namesin a Kojima production, as lots of notable talent were featured in his earlier games,going back to MGS2: Sons of Libertyand continuing in Death Stranding 2.

While not technically considered a Hollywood actor,veteran voice actorDavid Hayter(Solid Snake)is a prolific screenwriter known for X-Men, The Scorpion King, X2, Lost in Oz (2002), Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, Wolves, and Netflix’s Warrior Nun.

The lateEarl Boenfrom The Terminator franchise, Annihilator, Naked Gun’s third installment, The Man with Two Brains, and The Odd Couple 2 is Sons of Liberty’s villain Sergei Gurlukovich.

Metal Gear Solid 4 had a character allied with Snake called Drebin 893, who was voiced by none other thanKing Ezekiel and Cyborg actor Khary Paytonfrom The Walking Dead and various DC animated series and movies like Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!

The starring role of Venom Snake in MGS5: The Phantom Pain was filled by prominent TV and movie starKiefer Sutherland, known for his roles as Jack Bauer in 24 and President Tom Kirkman in Designated Survivor. You may also know him from Flatliners, Mirrors, Rabbit Hole, The Lost Boys, and Stand by Me.

Death Stranding saw an even greater surplus of starswith Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and even directors Nicolas Winding Refn and Guillermo del Toro.

The protagonist,Norman Reedus, is perhaps most famous for The Boondock Saints, Blade 2, and for playing Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead and his spin-off show, while antagonistMads Mikkelsenis known for Hannibal, The Hunt (2012), Another Round, Rogue One, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Léa Seydoux, or Fragile, has starred in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Blue is the Warmest Color, 007’s Spectre and No Time To Die, Crimes of the Future, The Beast, and Dune: Part Two.

ActressMargaret Qualley, playing Mama in Death Stranding, has been in The Nice Guys, HBO’s The Leftovers, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Fosse/Verdon, Poor Things, and Drive-Away Dolls.

Die-Hardman actor Tommie Earl Jenkinsis most well-known for playing Mayor Noble Walker in Netflix’s Wednesday and Ellison Pevney in CW’s Pandora.

And Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will now addElle Fanning(Hulu’s The Great, Maleficent, Mary Shelley, The Girl from Plainville) andShioli Kutsuna(Apple TV+’s Invasion, Deadpool 2, Murder Mystery, Oh Lucy!, The Outsider).

So, which stars are getting direction from Kojima in his weird new cutting-edge horror game OD?

Notable Movies And TV Shows

2019, 2022

Belle (English dub)

2021

2023

Cuckoo

2024

First up is Hunter Schafer, who skyrocketed to fame with herbreakout Emmy-nominated role in HBO Max’s Euphoria, playing transgender teen Jules Vaughn, who’s best friends with Zendaya’s troubled character Rue and who stirs up some drama for Nate’s family with her proclivities.

Schafer is also memorable for her role as a young Tigris in The Hunger Games prequelThe Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes, Coriolanus Snow’s much more empathetic and fashion-forward cousin.

And before her horror game outing in OD, you can catch her in the2024 horror film Cuckoo, where she stars alongside Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, and Marton Csokas.

Hunter Schafer is herself a transgender woman, which means OD will also break new ground for trans representation in the game industry in a major way that hasn’t happened since August Aiden Black’s portrayal ofplayable trans character Tyler Ronan in Tell Me Why.

2017, 2019

2018

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

2019

2020

Asteroid City

Sophia Lillis is an actress you’ll instantly recognize as theyoung Beverly Marshinthe 2017 remake of Stephen King’s It, which she also reprised in the 2019 sequel. Her other horror movie was Oz Perkins' darker take on the Hansel and Gretel tale by the Brothers Grimm, where she playedGretel.

She’s also been in the TV showsSharp Objectson HBO Max, where she was the younger version of Amy Adams' Camille Preaker, and Netflix’sI Am Not Okay With This.

By age 22, she’d already worked withWes Anderson, got to assume the iconic roles of Bev Marsh,Nancy Drew, Gretel, the tiefling Doric inthe 2023 D&D movie Honor Among Thieves, and is now set to collaborate with Kojima in his horror endeavor.

1973

1974

1977

1991

1994

1996

2002

2009

2017

2022

Hunters

German actor Udo Kier is perhaps the most exciting reveal from the OD trailer, considering he’s a bit ofa horror movie iconwith a career spanning back to the late 1960s.

He first gained recognition for his roles asBaron Von Frankenstein and Count Draculain Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. Then he went on to star in Dario Argento’s supernatural ballet horrorSuspiria.

Worth noting is that Udo Kier has also appeared in plenty of comedic movies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective with Jim Carrey and Downsizing with Matt Damon andworked with Turkish-German director Fatih Akinon the film Soul Kitchen.

Fatih Akin is a director confirmed to be featured in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach alongside George Milleras a stop-motion puppet companionfor protagonist Sam Bridges.

Kier alsocollaborated with Danish film director Lars von Trieron The Kingdom, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia, and Nymphomaniac Vol. 2, another director Hideo Kojima has expressed admiration for.

Unlike his co-stars Sophia Lillis and Hunter Schafer,Kier is also no stranger to being in video games, voicing Lord Yuri in theCommand & Conquerseries, Dr. Peter Straub inCall of Duty: WW2, Erich inMartha is Dead, and reprising Lorenzini in The Adventures of Pinocchio video game.

Another interesting fact about Udo Kier’s movie and television roles is thathe often portrays Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, which was in 1989’s 100 Years of Adolf Hitler, 2002’s Mrs. Meitlemeihr, 2019’s Iron Sky: The Coming Race, and the Jordan Peele-produced Prime Video series Hunters (a director associated with OD).

Timothèe Chalamet

Call Me by Your Name, Lady Bird, The King, Little Women, The French Dispatch, Dune, Don’t Look Up, Bones and All, Wonka, Dune: Part Two

Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee)

Chronicles of Evil, Train to Busan, The Outlaws, Unstoppable, Eternals, The Roundup series, Badland Hunters

Hidetoshi Nishijima

License to Live, Dolls, The Wind Rises, Drive My Car, Guilty Flag, Kamen Rider Black Sun

Nicolas Cage

Leaving Las Vegas, Con Air, Face/Off, Adaptation, Lord of War, Ghost Rider, National Treasure, Next, Knowing, Mandy, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Renfield, Dream Scenario

Koji Yakusho

Memoirs of a Geisha, Babel, 13 Assassins, Oh Lucy!, Mirai, Belle, Vivant, Perfect Days

Oscar Isaac

A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, The Promise, Star Wars Episodes 7-9, Dune, Scenes from a Marriage, Moon Knight, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Elijah Wood

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sin City, Happy Feet, Over the Garden Wall, Maniac, Wilfred

George MacKay

11.22.63, Captain Fantastic, Marrowbone, 1917, Munich: The Edge of War, The Beast

Wyatt Oleff

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2, It Chapters 1 &2, I Am Not Okay With This, Stay Awake, The Year Between, City on Fire

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Ayano Omoto

Out of all these famous stars Hideo has teased,the photo with Wyatt Oleffis a strong clue that the actor may star alongside Sophia Lillis for a third time in OD. He previously shared the screen with the actress in It and It Chapter 2 as a young Stanley Uris and as her friend Stanley Barber in I Am Not Okay With This.

Timothèe Chalamethas been seen a lot with Hideo Kojima and even presented at the 2023 Game Awards, getting yet another opportunity to meet with OD’s creator. Chalamet also starred in Paul King’s Wonka, a director whom Kojima is a fan of.

Nicolas Cagehas already crossed over into the realm of video gamesas a DLC survivor for the asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight in 2023, as well as starred in many horror films, so Nic Cage could be the missing ingredient OD requires.

Actor Ma Dong-seok, or Don Lee, is a South Korean star known for the hit zombie movie Train to Busan and then returned to the zombie genre with 2024’s Badland Hunters, so horror is quite within his lane.

Oscar Isaacis known for working with director Alex Garland in his back-to-back sci-fi movies Ex Machina and Annihilation, and he played Chalamet’s father Leto Atreides in Dune. Garland was already confirmed to have signed the Kojima Productions board and had his photo taken with Kojima.

Another name that sticks out isKoji Yakusho, who starred in the 2023 Japanese show Vivant and was the voice of Suzu’s father in the 2021 anime movie Belle, which Hunter Schafer was also in as the English voice for the character Ruka.

One of the directors for Vivant, Yohei Miyazaki, also visited Kojima Productions, so perhaps there’s a connection there.

Aside from Hollywood movie stars, Hideo Kojima also teased photos with celebrity musicians, like Oscar-winning composer duoTrent Reznor and Atticus Rossand Perfume pop group singerAyano Omoto.

Hideo Kojima’s entrance music for the OD Presentation at the Game Awards was the song’Came Back Haunted’by Nine Inch Nails, which is another huge hint at Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' involvement with OD.

Hideo said he’s assembling what he likes to refer to as the “Avengers” for OD, and this composer pair would certainly fit.