Solid Snake, Timothee Chalamet and President Mimir: Explaining that Death Stranding 2 trailer

Plumbing the tar-filled depths of Kojima’s latest edit

Kojima Productions dropped a gargantuan trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, clocking in at just over ten minutes and revealing that the game will launch on June 26, 2025. The epic piece aired as part of SXSW, where Kojima-san took part in a panel alongside Troy Baker, Norman Reedus, and Woodkid, the composer of this trailer’s soundtrack, “To The Wilder”.

Let’s review this latest trailer and try to understand what’s happening. We’ll also touch on some of the cool surprises peppered throughout.

Neil Snake and Lucy Strand

The trailer introduces a new character, Neil, played by Italian actor Luca Marinelli. Kojima has previously said that Marinelli would be the perfect person to play Solid Snake in a Metal Gear Solid adaptation—but more on that later.

For now, he’s being interrogated and is dubbed a criminal by, ostensibly, an American interrogator who looks a bit like Roy Campbell from Metal Gear, but again, more on that later. The crime? Smuggling brain-dead pregnant women into the UCA (United Cities of America) by crossing the Mexican border. Damn, bro. Good luck getting out of that one.

He reveals this information to Lucy, a doctor who works for Bridges, played by Alissa Jung. What’s interesting about this casting is that Alissa Jung is Luca Marinelli’s real wife, and she’s also a physician, alongside being an actor. Any fan will know Kojima is no stranger to these postmodern parallels.

Immediately, I’m thinking about the fact that Sam’s wife in the first Death Stranding was a therapist called Lucy, who killed herself while pregnant with Lou (the baby BB-28 is named after). There was a voidout before Sam could get to Lucy, so he never saw her or Lou’s body. Lucy’s picture in Death Stranding looks different from Alissa Jung's visage, but there could be a retcon here, and we’re seeing Lucy Strand before the first game's events. This would line up with Neil’s dirty work for the UCA / Bridges, who we know was, for a long time, conducting unethical experiments and creating Bridge Babies in an attempt to understand the Beached Things that arose from the initial Death Stranding.

Some of those experiments involved brain-dead pregnant women, such as Lisa Unger (Cliff’s wife and Sam’s mother), though, in Lisa’s case, Cliff gave her over to Bridges out of desperation following an accident that put her in that state. Lucy regrets “a thing” between herself and Neil, suggesting they’re romantically involved somehow. If this is Lucy Strand, perhaps she was Neil’s partner before she met Sam, or this is a minor dalliance. It sounds tin foil, but maybe Neil is the real father of the original Lou, and there were other motivations surrounding her tragic suicide.

There’s also the possibility that they’re BB-28 (New Lou)’s parents. Neil and his skeleton army seem to be the analogue to Mads Mikkelsen’s Cliff in the first game, and Sam’s initial theory in Death Stranding was that Cliff’s desire for his BB was because Cliff was the BB’s father — until that was subverted into Cliff being Sam’s father. Neil’s sunken eyes could certainly explain a relation between himself and Mads Mikkelsen’s character, but we’re off the deep end already. Anyway.

Death Stranding 2 is set eleven months after the events of the first game

Next up, we see Sam with New Lou, this time out of the BB pod, cooing like a normal baby. This is a continuation of the end of Death Stranding, where the Timefall ceased, and it seemed Sam and Lou could breathe the open air.

From his cargo pack, we can see Sam is now working for the Automated Public Assistance Company or APAC. Later in the trailer, we see the company’s little porter robots, which appear to have automated or at least trivialised the arduous package delivery processes. APAC’s logo resembles the Dutch East India Company. Like the DEIC, APAC could be an allegory for a corporation that acts like a country in this power vacuum, with its own laws, money, borders, army and governance. In the first trailer, a voice says, “It wasn’t the UCA that made the final decision; it was APAC, a private corporation.” Hmm!

A text flash tells us that Death Stranding 2 takes place eleven months after the birth of the UCA, which was the Chiral Network project Sam completed in Death Stranding by uniting the cities of the broken American landscape under the banner of Bridges. Bridges was dissolved at the end of the first game, and the major players went their separate ways after the events of the Last Stranding. We know from the first game that the UCA is attempting to expand its borders into Mexico and beyond. It is now served by Drawbridge, Fragile (Lea Seydoux)’s logistics company — curiously funded by an unnamed benefactor.

The trailer tells us that deliveries have been automated (seemingly by APAC) and that “servers line the beach.” Beaches in Death Stranding are liminal, timeless purgatories between life and death that are unique to each person and offer supernatural powers. Fragile can teleport with the help of her beach, and Sam can repatriate or come back to life with the help of his own. Cliff’s beach seemed to have been conjured from the trauma of all the world’s dead soldiers, recreating famous war zones — and we’ll see what looks like another one later in this trailer.

Most importantly, Amelie’s beach, as revealed in Death Stranding, is The Beach, as in, the heart of the afterlife, the nexus of the dead, which flows into all other beaches. In Death Stranding, the Chiral Network relies on The Beach's powerful, timeless nature to create communication backdoors and transfer data at incredible speeds. If servers now “line The Beach”, I guess that APAC is ‘colonising’ the power of the afterlife for its delivery automation technology. Seems evil! However, per the rest of the trailer, Sam still appears to have cargo to deliver, including boxes and er, people.

The UCA’s expanding influence

Elsewhere, the trailer tells us that a Plate Gate now connects the continents. It looks like a portal at the edge of a Tectonic Plate, allowing you to jump to Europe from North America and vice versa. It seems that the tagline “Should We Have Connected” is at least partly about how different factions are expanding their influence in this formerly broken world.

Death Stranding 2 may question the supposedly noble ambitions of the UCA to expand the Chiral Network and the inevitable and potentially dangerous cultural influence that will bring. Sam famously told Die-Hardman in the original Death Stranding that conflict and weapons won’t help build a new, better America. Maybe his fears about the outfit’s direction are coming true under new management. Much later, the trailer ends with this revealing quote:

“The world divided made whole, with a few sticks for encouragement. The UCA’s precursor, the United States of America, had a prominent gun culture. A distinctly American philosophy, and one which would appear to have spread to this continent. The more we seek to unite the people with metaphorical ropes, the more essential sticks seem to become.”

Magellan Man

Then we see the DHV Magellan (named after the Portuguese explorer who first circumnavigated the Earth). This is the ship used by Drawbridge, Fragile’s logistics company, to ride the tar currents and expand the Chiral Network beyond the UCA. Chiralium seems to be still warping the environment in Death Stranding 2, which will make this process quite tricky. Notably, the scenes where everyone has blue skin appear to be due to the Magellan being in a tar current, which briefly bathes the crew in Chiralium.

Another problem for the Magellan will be the ‘mysterious faction’ that has cropped up in the meantime, led by Higgs, who is back after being defeated in the first game.

Sam is shown trawling through various gorgeous landscapes, from lush jungles to lava fields, but one of note is the urban area with cars and power lines. A sign on the building to his right says ‘Asadas’ and ‘Cervezas’, further confirming that we’ll be helping Drawbridge bring Mexico into the Chiral Network in Death Stranding 2.

Sam seems to be using many of the same tools from the first game, with the addition of a boat-bike vehicle. Later in the trailer, Sam crosses bridges and tar current highways in a truck similar to those seen in Death Stranding. There also appears to be a new zip line mechanic for large-scale traversal.

Finally, on the gameplay front, he’s also seen activating a Prepper Station — the South Distribution Centre — now under the APAC banner. He does so with a new kind of Q-pid. This summons the South Korean actor Ma Dong-seok, who plays the bunker’s guardian. Like the first game, which featured Errolson Hugh and Junji Ito, among other celebrity cameos, it looks like Death Stranding 2 will continue this particular motif.

Where’s Lou?

We then get a cutscene starring Fragile and BB-28, or New Lou, as we’ll call her. Fragile is beset by Higgs’ new sarcophagus-fronted, mummy-themed faction, crashes her bike, and then tries to teleport away. However, she can only teleport her equipment, not both her and Lou. So, she teleports Lou away and is seemingly killed or captured. Maybe she teleported Lou into… Tomorrow’s sarcophagus! Keep reading; that will make sense later.

At the end of the trailer, Fragile smooches Sam and tells him that “death can’t tear us apart,” seemingly confirming her deceased status despite appearing in corporeal form. Curiously, she also says ‘we’ here, suggesting that Lou is potentially dead too. This was indicated in previous trailers, but it looks like one of the pillars of Death Stranding 2 will involve searching for answers surrounding the disappearance of Lou, even though it seems that Fragile saved, or at least distanced Lou from whatever fate she suffered at the hands of Higgs’s crew.

Who we’re fighting this time

Then we see a few vignettes of Sam tackling this game’s enemies, which include new, monstrous Beached Things, BTs that fight like Kaiju, Metal Gear Solid 4 looking-ass squid robots, and automated motorbikes, some seemingly tied to Higgs’s crew.

Sam is also seen fighting members of this faction in a warehouse, and then some more typical-looking MULE crews are out in the field. Their red Odradeks could suggest they’re tied to Higgs somehow.

Short-haired Sam?

A small scene features Sam with short hair looking at a body covered in a tarp. Flashback? The watery reflections on the floor suggest Sam is connected to The Beach here or in The Seam, but beyond that, I’ve got no idea. Is it Fragile’s body? Shortly after, there’s also a scene of two doctors pulling said tarp off a body. Shortly after, a golden-and-black makeup-covered face opens their eyes on an operating table.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow…

This coated face could be that of Tomorrow, Elle Fanning’s character, seemingly dredged from the tar-filled sea by the Magellan’s crew, in a yellow chrysalis-come-sarcophagus. In the State of Play trailer, the Magellan’s captain, Tarman (George Miller), explains that the tar is a primordial soup capable of producing life. From the ensuing autopsy, it seems that Tomorrow has appropriate squid-like features and produces tar that causes ageing, like Timefall. Probably because she's been soaking in the stuff, which may be why Tomorrow if they are Lou, appears much older. Further to this, In the TGS footage, Tomorrow says that in the world she came from, nobody gives birth to babies; they stay inside their mother’s bellies…

Regardless of who Tomorrow is, they appear several times in this trailer. In one scene, she’s wearing a white dress and repelling tar monsters. In another, she’s holding a gun and winking. And then she’s on the Magellan, and Higgs clutches her face. There’s undoubtedly a connection between these characters, indicated by their sharing of the gold makeup motif. But how is Tomorrow related to Sam and Fragile? Some have suggested she’s an older Lou because the first game’s tagline is ‘Tomorrow is in your hands’. And there’s certainly scope for that, but maybe she’s more connected to Amelie. Speaking of which…

Higgs is back in action

During a flash, we see Higgs, who now dons Amelie’s necklace (and he seems to have gained her hair, too). The last time we saw Higgs was on Amelie’s beach, so maybe he has found a way to possess her soul, or vice versa, to come back. Either way, the cult he’s established upon his escape seems to be centred around Amelie, which is probably why the statues they covet look a bit like her. In the State of Play trailer, Higgs suggests he’s in control of a factory and distributing a product — seemingly chaos, via his army of robot dudes — across the continent.

Higgs is also being stalked by the Red Samurai, a robot that looks like one of his crew, except it is antagonistic towards him and only speaks in baby noises. Huh. It could have something to do with one of the Lous.

Later in this trailer, he is seen in a literal coffin, carried around by a gun-toting robot. Then, we see him confronting Tomorrow. In another scene, he appears without clothes, with Q-pid equations on his forehead.

After the trailer’s credits roll, Troy Baker’s Higgs says: “This time I’ll make a lasting connection with the Lady in Red, the perfect ending Humanity deserves.” The Lady in Red feels like a clear allusion to Amelie, and perhaps he’s trying in vain to connect with her to finish what she started and what Sam thwarted in Death Stranding.

Perhaps his end goal is ushering in the ultimate extinction event with the help of his new faction. For some reason, Higgs also has a tentacle tongue now — maybe it’s part of his connection to Tomorrow and their shared cephalopod features or kinship with the tar sea.

What if Higgs mastered the tar field to return to the land of the living and directly or indirectly ushered Tomorrow into existence? Regardless of whether it is or isn’t a teenage Lou, maybe he is trying to use Tomorrow as the new vessel for Amelie’s extinction event (she certainly looks similar), and her being saved by the crew of the Magellan is all part of his plan. He’s a tricksy guy like that. There’s also a shot in the latest trailer of a baby doll in the same sarcophagus Tomorrow was found in. Just food for thought!

Mimir for president

One of the more interesting parts of the ensemble is the reveal that Alastair Duncan (Mimir from God of War) will be playing The President. I’d guess that he’s the new president of the UCA and the one continuing the mission of expanding America’s influence, likely with the help of APAC’s systems. Interestingly enough, the pin he’s wearing is a crab, and later in the trailer, we see a bunch of crabs crawling all over the servers — are they APAC’s servers?

In the State of Play trailer, Fragile says that a “lot of things changed” within the UCA after Sam went off on his own at the end of Death Stranding. Then, a voice says, “With the support of the chiral network and APAS, humanity will be free from the need to move around. Bots are capable of handling deliveries.” Is this the UCA’s new, slightly worrying vision?

It could also be Dollman talking about The President. Still, it could well be The President’s voice behind this quote, the quote from the very end of this latest trailer about America’s gun culture and the quote from the first trailer about APAC being a private corporation making decisions for the UCA. His motives are yet to be fully explored, but I’m sure he’ll be an essential character in the full game, a bit of a Wallace Breen if I had to take a guess at it.

Who the heck is Charlie?

A disembodied mannequin with drawn-on features appears for a second and seems to be in the Magellan's cockpit. Perhaps this is the onboard computer or AI running the ship. Either way, they don’t have an actor attached. Shrug!

Heartman is here!

Kojima’s bestie, Nicolas Winding Refn, returns as Heartman. In this latest scene, he is standing in front of a map of BBs, so that may be some side quest Sam embarks upon to recover lost pods. From the TGS footage, it seems like he’s exploring the beaches with his regularly scheduled time in the land of death and then capturing his tears afterwards. At the end of this new trailer, Sam pulls on a Drawbridge-branded VR headset, and we see Heartman commanding the Magellan to integrate with a BT Kaiju to control it and brawl another BT Kaiju. I have no idea what he’s up to here, but you do you, Kojima.

Debra Wilson is… Doctor!

That’s all I’ve got there, I’m afraid. They have two right hands, which is weird, though they look a bit like Fragile’s neck-based hand mask, which allows her to perform gestures while her human hands are full. Also, Doctor has tar-like marks on their bald head and can warp their hands through tar-shelled BB pods. I have nothing more to add there.

ACRONYM

Sam’s vest is made by techwear legend Errolson Hugh’s apparel brand ACRONYM, who also designed the orange and black coats the other cast members are seen wearing in Death Stranding 2. They’ve also been produced in the real world. If you liked this article and you’re rich beyond my wildest dreams, please consider supporting Postmode by, ahem, buying me one of those jackets? ACRONYM also designed Sam’s vest in the first game and made a variant of the J1A-GT to commemorate the collaboration. I interviewed Errolson Hugh and Yoji Shinkawa about it for The Washington Post a few years ago. Give that a read after this if you want.

Timothee Chalamet?!

We get a shot of George Miller controlling some cannon in the middle of the tar sea while someone’s stained gloves are pressed on the window. Tarman seems to be ignoring him. The ‘Him’ I’m referring to is then revealed in the next shot, wandering towards the camera and looking up. It’s probably not him, but they look an awful lot like wor Timmy, don’t they? Chalamet visited Kojima Productions in 2023, so it’s reasonable to think he could appear in Death Stranding 2. Right? Maybe it’s one of his lookalikes…

Dollman and Baby Mama?

We’ve known for some time that Turkish-German director Fatih Akin would appear in Death Stranding 2, but so far, we’ve seen him as a stop-motion marionette called Dollman.

In this new trailer, we see Akin’s likeness shining a torch at a Beached Thing while sheltering a young girl who looks an awful lot like Margaret Qualley, who played Mama and Lockne in Death Stranding. If you remember, Mama gave birth to a ghostly Beached Thing in Death Stranding and was tethered to it by the umbilical cord, which was keeping her human body alive. Sam severs this, the baby returns to The Beach, and Mama merges with Lockne.

I’m not sure what we’re seeing here, but maybe this is Mama’s baby (Baby Mama) on the other side, and the human Dollman (who we know is a spirit guide before his Ka got stuck inside a doll) has become her protector in this BT-filled nightmare. You can see she’s clutching a doll, but the doll hasn’t taken on Fatih’s likeness yet, so maybe this is a flashback of how he became Dollman. Early in the trailer, there’s a scene where Fragiel leans over a dead body and holds a doll. Is this the end point of his adventures with Baby Mama and Dollman’s first appearance in the real world?

Curiously, in the TGS footage, Heartman recognises Dollman. Maybe Heartman helps Dollman and Baby Mama navigate and escape this hellish realm?

Is Deadman dead?

Later in the trailer, we see Sam reaching out towards a hologram screen, which appears to feature Guillermo Del Toro’s Deadman walking away from him. Sam starts crying soon after… don’t tell me Deadman is, uh, dead!

Rainy in the rain

In this trailer, we get a flash of Rainy being pelted with rocks by random MULEs. There’s not much known about this character beyond the fact that when they make it onto the Magellan, they’re pregnant and can’t wait to give birth to the baby.

Another scene in this trailer shows Rainy holding a baby with a head of hair, clearly different to BB-28, while flanked by Doctor and a new character with a bald tattooed head. Perhaps that’s her baby?

Snake? SNAKE!? SNAAAAAAAKE?!

The trailer’s final section kicks it back to our buddy Neil, who fastens a bandana around his forehead after tapping his fancy watch, immediately evoking Solid Snake. Soon after, his head flickers to a skull and back, and the same thing happens to his military-garbed crew. Curiously, Neil is also sporting a woman’s face on his bandana.

We’ve seen this skull soldier motif before during the Cliff Unger warzone sequences in Death Stranding. The crew then stand in front of a burning building and statue, with fireworks popping off in the distance. What warzone and period is this? The tech looks pretty modern, but I can’t pin it down. Maybe this is how we’ll explore the fall of America before the events of the first game. I can’t recognise the landmark in the background, but perhaps it has a real-world analogue — it looks a bit like a cathedral.

While on the topic of Neil, there’s also a tiny scene in the middle of the trailer where he looks out of a window at a burning urban environment. You can see what looks like Papel Picado (Mexican bunting) in the background, establishing a connection to the landscape Sam will explore in Death Stranding 2. Interesting!

That’s enough for now, I think

I have yapped long enough, though I have some remaining questions, like why is Sam old sometimes? Probably a time skip somewhere, maybe before and after Lou gets ‘jumped’. Now, I must wait for my fellow internet dwellers to provide a new smattering of answers. Thanks for reading, fellow Death Stranding sicko! Hit me up on Bluesky if you have questions.

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