It’s official: Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård, the man behind Pennywise and Count Orlok, will play the leading role in Kojima’s upcoming espionage-action game, PHYSINT. Furthermore, this title will enable Korean acting legend Don Lee to take another shot at gaming greatness following the downfall of Gang of the Dragon.
This was confirmed by Hideo Kojima today via a series of social media posts revealing various actors who are going to star in PHYSINT. Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, son of one of Hollywood’s and Europe’s best actors, Stellan Skarsgard, will be taking the leading role, starring next to Charlee Fraser, Minami Hamabe, and the incredible Don Lee.
Kojima himself put out a brief statement regarding Skarsgard’s casting, saying that “we are both long-time fans of each other’s work” and have “decided to embark on this new adventure together.”
“The costume fittings, scans, and camera tests we conducted with Bill and Charlee earlier this year gave me tremendous confidence in the direction of the project,” Kojima said.
Kojima has been known to put well-known actors in his games, often to incredible success and great effect, with most recent examples including Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding, as well as Léa Seydoux in that same franchise. Guillermo Del Toro, too, had a place in the duology.
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Skarsgard is best known for his role as Pennywise the Clown in the most recent adaptation of Stephen King’s IT. He plays the demonic entity with such depth and screen presence that I think he’s already solidified himself as one of the best horror actors to ever do it, though horror isn’t really his main thing.
Most recently, though, I saw him in The Death of Robin Hood and loved his portrayal of Little John. Though markedly different from the character we know from cartoons and children’s tales, Skarsgård’s character has such incredible depth and, again, incredibly compelling scene presence, which just showed me how far-reaching his range as an actor is.
I would’ve loved to see Robert Pattinson leading PHYSINT, but perhaps he and Kojima will find another project to work on.
Don Lee, too, now has another chance to really make his mark in gaming after his collaboration with former Yakuza devs on Gang of Dragon seems to have fallen through. Though that game isn’t officially canceled yet, its financial situation, as well as internal status, has been grim for a very long time, leading to such decisions as removing the game’s trailers and social media accounts.
Whether that’ll ever come out is unknown, but at least this legendary Korean actor can finally be allowed to show what he can do to the gaming world.
