The Death Stranding IP continues to grow. In addition to getting a movie adaptation from A24, Hideo Kojima’s creation is now getting an animated series on a surprising streaming service: Disney+. Set to arrive in 2027, Death Stranding Isolations (working title) was unveiled at the Disney+ Originals Preview at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. The series’ executive producer, Hideo Kojima, was joined onstage by series director Takayuki Sano to announce their first-ever partnership with a global streaming platform. New concept art for the series from Ilya Kuvshinov was revealed. Kuvshinov served as character designer for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, which may be why the art style looks familiar to you.
Death Stranding Isolations will tell a completely new story set in the world of Death Stranding. It’ll be entirely separate from the video games, with the premise following a young man and woman as they set out on an adventure. It will be told through a traditional, hand-drawn 2D animation style, with E&H Production at the helm to bring the series to life.
Kojima Productions offered this story synopsis for the upcoming series:
Once, there was an explosion…
Lonesome souls of the dead manifest in the physical world, reaching in search of the living. However, the connection they create triggers a massive explosion that eradicates anything of this world—a phenomenon referred to as the Death Stranding. These events wipe out nations as well as civilization itself. People who remain are now isolated, withdrawn, and without connections. As humanity stands at the brink a legendary porter set out to transport both cargo and wishes of its senders, reconnecting people in the hope that they might still be saved.
Based on the video game born out of the mind of legendary game creator, Hideo Kojima, comes a new animation series headed by Japan’s up-and-coming animation studio E&H production. Helmed by E&H’s Takayuki Sano, it follows in the footsteps of the original in spirit and ideas and depict the world of Death Stranding through a bold and yet subtle touch and top-class hand-drawn animation.
Somewhere in North America, just as Sam Bridges walks through the continent in order to save America, the someones are also trying to deal with their isolation in their own way. An old man trying to realize salvation through ways outside of the connection advocated by Bridges. A female warrior who tries to kickstart a world of constant fighting. A boy with a grudge against Bridges. A girl who embraces loneliness.
On the precipice of the end of humanity and the world, their fates and hopes converge, as another story of Death Stranding begins.
And now, comes another explosion…
