Kurt Russell Turned Down Metal Gear Solid Role

Everyone knows that Solid Snake of the Metal Gear Solid series was ‘inspired’ by Snake Plissken.  As well as Colonel Trautman making an appearance too, if you ask me.  Anyway, the writer of X-Men, Watchmen and other big movies, David Hayter, has always played Snake in the games.

However series creator Hideo Kojima has apparently had a disliking for Hayter in the role.

Hayter told Game Informer that Konami informed him that the team was going in a different direction for The Phantom Pain. On speaking with English casting director Kris Zimmerman, “‘We’re going forward, but it looks like they are going to try and replace you.’ They tried to do that before, and it never worked. They tried to get voice matches, and it never happened.”

Trouble was brewing for some time between Hayter and Kojima with the latter looking to replace the former. Hayter said, “I had to re-audition for Metal Gear 3 to play Naked Snake. They made me re-audition to play Old Snake, and the whole time, they were trying to find somebody else to do it. I heard that Kojima asked one of the producers on Metal Gear 3 to ask Kurt Russell if he would take over for that game. He didn’t want to do it.”

I’m not surprised that Kurt Russell didn’t want to do it.  The games are a terrific technical achievement but I find the writing to be a hot mess of convoluted gibberish.  They make sense in the same way as separating at giant ball of AV cables makes sense, anyone can understand it, but it doesn’t stop it being a mess.