Metal Gear Solid Movie Reportedly Casts Oscar Isaac as Solid Snake

Imagine if you will, reader, a giant exclamation mark appearing above my head accompanied by Metal Gear Solid’s iconic alert sound. I have to imagine that’s probably what would happen if I ever saw Oscar Isaac (the Star Wars sequels, Ex Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis) out and about in public. It’s also close to my reaction upon hearing that he’s attached to star as Solid Snake in the feature film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.

Deadline nabbed the scoop on this casting news, bringing some fresh information on Sony’s long-in-development Metal Gear Solid plans. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has been part of the project for years, and now it seems he’s found his David in Isaac.

Back in 2017, Vogt-Roberts talked about testing the waters with potential screenwriters by making them play the Metal Gear Solid games, a gesture toward bringing a real love for the source material into the movie (it helps, also, that cinephile and series creator Hideo Kojima is approves of Vogt-Roberts). I don’t know if Isaac himself is a deep Metal Gear lore fiend, but he does play games—a few years ago he talked with Rolling Stone about playing Street Fighter 5 and The Witness, so he can probably fit right into the Metal Gear movie’s geeky machinery.

Others working on the picture include producer Avi Arad (also producing Eli Roth’s upcoming Borderlands movie), Sony Pictures executive producer Peter Kang, and screenwriter Derek Connolly (Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island, Detective Pikachu).

Between the pandemic and Isaac’s already busy slate, it may be a while yet before we see him in any of Solid Snake’s CQC-ready gear. Isaac is also set to star in the Marvel Moon Knight series for Disney+ and will appear as Duke Leto Atreides in the new Denis Villeneuve Dune, which will debut simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max next year.

Sony’s also got good reason to resist rushing this project. The pandemic has surely impacted its release plans for another game adaptation that’s been incubating for a while: the Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland. With Holland set to present at The Game Awards this month, it’s possible we’ll get our first look at scenes from that project soon.

If you’ve got any fantasy casting for the Metal Gear Solid movie in light of this news, let us know. Personally, I think there’s probably some way we could get Adam Driver in there too—for the Star Wars connection, sure, but also for this amazing scene from a few years earlier.