24’s Kiefer Sutherland will voice the ultimate solider in the next installment of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
I say Solid Snake of Konami’s Metal Gear fame, and chances are a good chunk of gamers will think of David Hayter, who, you might remember from such films as Guyver 2: Dark Hero, an extra in first X-Men movie, and a guest spot on TV sitcom Major Dad as a Russian officer.
Hayter, of course, is also a journeyman voice actor well beloved among both the Anime and Gaming circles. Certainly, more so for in the latter crowd by being the low, grumbly voice of one of the most recognizable videogame characters. Hands down.
But now a surprising change of casting for Metal Gear Solid 5 will end Hayter’s honored streak of playing Snake, as Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima revealed during Konami’s pre-E3 livestream event that a new actor will be taking Hayter’s place. Who exactly?
This man.
Kiefer Sutherland – respected actor and star of the hit action-drama television series 24 – is being tapped to play Big Boss – a.k.a. Naked Snake and Solid Snake’s genetic papa – for the next Metal Gear Solid game currently in development for current gen consoles and possibly next gen ones too.
This recasting isn’t totally out of left field though, for months there’s been wide speculation of a new voice for Snake partly due to Hayter himself, who revealed through his Twitter account that the possibility of him not returning to his most familiar role could be real.
And then the most damning of evidence, a MGS5 trailer at this year’s Game Developers Conference that had a Kiefer Sutherland-like voice coming from one of the heavily bandaged characters during the hospital scene, you know, right before the fire people and the giant cloud whale show up.
The repercussions on how this new casting effects the story side of MGS5 is still largely unknown, but the repercussions on the fan side have been – not surprisingly – mixed and varied; mostly a ton of positivity, and likewise, a lot of “No Hayter, no buy” anger spewed all over the Internet.
No doubt this a huge acting change that will be talked about heavily around the gaming spaces until Metal Gear Solid 5 hits consoles. Really, I’m desperately waiting for Sutherland to utter the words “Metal Gear” – I’m grinning already at the thought.
I’m also grinning at the thought of all the awesome geeky news here on Walyou.com, like gnarly steampunk costumes and Domino’s Pizza delivering their pies by air drones.
