And the voice of Snake in Konami’s awkwardly titled Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be handled by, err, you didn’t know the part was up for grabs? Neither did I.
But it was, and now the guy probably best known for his increasingly implausible 24-hour feats of broadcast derring-do will take up the mantle held by actor David Hayter since 1998: Kiefer Sutherland will play Snake — that is, Big Boss, or Naked Snake, not to be confused with Solid Snake — in the forthcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 “tactical espionage” stealth game.
Curiously, Kojima pitched MGS V as “much darker” than prior installments in Konami’s pre-E3 reveal. It’s hard to imagine the series turning darker than Guns of the Patriots, but if he says so. In any event, I’m not sure I follow the logic behind swapping actors to elicit “a more subdued performance,” especially where the stated goal is to portray a guy in his late 40s (the game takes place in 1984, making this version of Snake 49) — David Hayter is 44, Kiefer Sutherland is 46. Surely Hayter could have delivered the goods from a “facial and vocal qualities” standpoint if that’s all Kojima was after. But I’m also indifferent to the raspy, Clint-Eastwood-on-a-respirator voice acting behind this particular MGS character, which — all due respect to the affable Mr. Hayter — has never been terribly multidimensional.
I’m not sure you’d call this a dig, but David Hayter posted this to Twitter shortly after Konami’s presentation.
I wouldn’t make too much of this until we’ve heard Sutherland putting the character through his paces.