By Hirun Cryer

Hideo Kojima feared he would have to rewrite major portions of Death Stranding 2 if actress Elle Fanning rejected the project.

A new episode of Hideo Kojima’s Brain Structure podcast featuring Fanning aired this week. Kojima stated he wanted to leverage “Elle’s talent and charisma to create a distinct character.” He also added that he revised sections of the sequel’s script based on Fanning’s mannerisms off‑camera.

“I really can’t share much, but she plays an extremely important role,” Kojima said of Fanning’s part in Death Stranding 2. “Yes, I created this character with Elle in mind. So I was worried she would turn down the offer. Since hers is such a key role, I would have had to scrap all the scenes I’d written.”

Despite the significance of Fanning’s character, she did not appear at all in the first Death Stranding 2 trailer shown at The Game Awards last December. The trailer confirmed Norman Reedus’ return as Sam Porter Bridges and Léa Seydoux as Fragile, yet Fanning was nowhere to be seen.

Recalling a pivotal day during the Death Stranding 2 motion capture session, Fanning said: “Once we wrapped for the day, you got to spend more time with me. But after that day, you said ‘I think I’m going to rewrite the script now. Meeting you gave me new ideas.’” She added that the only other person on set for that particular mo‑cap session was Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, who lent his likeness to the original game.

“I changed a lot and even added new scenes,” Kojima continued. “So we adjusted elements during performance capture. I want actors like Elle to be part of the creative process.” Following that conversation, fellow podcast guest and The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley revealed that Death Stranding 2 still had “a lot of shooting left,” and Kojima Productions would continue filming into the next year.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Fanning shared that Death Stranding 2 takes motion capture technology to a new level, promising the sequel “looks amazing,” even though it was far from finished at that time.

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