Mads Mikkelsen is very good at being bad – Bond's Le Chiffre, Hannibal, Doctor Strange's Kaecilius – and it would appear from the spooky trailer that he's about to play the bad guy in Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima's next game Death Stranding, too.
But as Mads and Hideo have been hanging out together at Kojima Productions in Tokyo, Japan, making the game, one thing's become clear – Death Stranding may have a lot of work left to do before it lands on PlayStation 4, but a firm bromance has already been built.
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See? There they are, just chilling in a window seat with a lovely sea view.
And here they are enjoying an intimate dinner together. Awww.
We want what they're having.
And here they are posing in front of some elegantly-framed photos, before Mads stares intently at a computer…
And here's Mads doing a little bit of (legit) graffiti at Kojima Productions, because Hideo totally lets him do what he wants. It's glorious…
Such a meeting of minds. We really can't wait for this game.
Mads' involvement in Death Stranding was revealed at The Game Awards last year, and the Rogue One star said it was the first mysterious trailer – starring The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus – that made him want to get involved.
"I thought that was spectacular just from the standpoint of an actor," he told Birth.Movies.Death (via Kotaku).
"The emotion, the feeling of it, the sensuality in what he does. Without even being a gamer, I was like, this is crazy, what he's doing. I loved it."
Mad love from Mads. He even had the privilege of being drawn by Kojima Productions' chief artist Yoji Shinkawa during his visit.
But does the main man know what the hell all the dolls, babies, beaches and strange oily strands we've seen in the first two trailers mean? Well...
"I mean, you know [Kojima], he's a very brilliant man," Mads added. "I mean... the stuff he told me? I only understood some of it. I have to see it before I understand."
Looks like we'll all have to wait and see, but this creative friendship is turning into the perfect warm-up.
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Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
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Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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Matt is a journalist, audience strategist, editorial director and workflow consultant with over 20 years' of experience in the industry.
A former director of audience development and content strategy at Hearst UK, Matt was previously Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy. There, he contributed features and reviews on TV, movies, consumer technology, video games and Lego sets, won BSME Digital Editor of the Year, and led the team to numerous awards including Campaign Consumer Media Brand of the Year and PPA Digital Content Team of the Year twice.
As Digital Development Director of the Hearst UK portfolio, he oversaw the central digital editorial teams including SEO, video, e-commerce and design, contributing to digital acceleration across all Hearst UK brands from Cosmopolitan to Good Housekeeping.
Before joining Hearst in 2015, Matt edited Future’s consumer technology lifestyle brand T3 and the UK arm of Gawker’s tech culture website Gizmodo, and was deputy editor at ShortList, the then biggest men’s magazine in the UK, interviewing the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Lord Sugar and Sirs Ridley Scott and David Attenborough in the process. LinkedIn
