Death Stranding Film Director Given Creative Freedom for Standalone Story

Director Michael Sarnoski says the upcoming live-action Death Stranding film will tell a standalone story separate from the core video game stories.

The film is being developed with distributor A24 and is based on the video game franchise created by Hideo Kojima. The games follow courier Sam as he attempts to reconnect a broken America after an apocalyptic event merges the worlds of the living and the dead.

Sarnoski said he has been given “a lot of freedom” to tell the story he wants. “It’s its own standalone thing,” he said, adding that he needs space to find his authorship and focus on ideas he believes in.

The director, whose credits include Pig and The Death of Robin Hood, said he feels pressure to appeal to existing fanbases but must set that aside and focus on what creatively excites him. He added that he cannot make the film as a reaction to what he thinks someone else wants, saying it must come from “a place of love and fascination.”