Metal Gear Solid movie to star Oscar Isaac as Solid Snake

The long-gestating film adaptation of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid has reportedly found its Solid Snake. Deadline reports that Oscar Isaac, known for his roles in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Ex Machina, and Inside Llewyn Davis, is attached to star in director Jordan Vogt-Robert’s Metal Gear movie.

Derek Connolly is reported to have written the script for Metal Gear Solid. His screenwriting credits include Pokémon Detective Pikachu, the Jurassic World franchise, and Kong: Skull Island, which Vogt-Roberts directed.

Isaac’s casting has been signaled by both Vogt-Roberts and the actor himself. In March 2019, Isaac said in an interview with IGN that the video-game-franchise-turned-film he was most interested in pursuing was none other than Metal Gear Solid. Shortly after that interview, Vogt-Roberts posted in favor of that casting decision on Twitter and said, “The ball’s in Oscar’s court.” Vogt-Roberts also shared a fan-casting mockup of Isaac as Solid Snake illustrated by the artist known as Bosslogic.

The Metal Gear Solid movie has been in the works since 2012, when Konami and series creator Hideo Kojima revealed that a Hollywood adaptation was in the works with producer Avi Arad. In 2014, Vogt-Roberts became a frontrunner to helm Sony Pictures’ Metal Gear project, prior to his work on Kong: Skull Island.

In 2017, Vogt-Roberts said in an interview with Collider that Metal Gear Solid is “probably the most important franchise to me on the planet.” He said he would “fight tooth and nail to make sure [it] is done properly,” and not “make it into something that it’s not. Metal Gear Solid needs to be exactly what it needs to be, which is Metal Gear Solid.”

Isaac is set to star in next year’s Dune from director Denis Villeneuve as well as Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight series for Disney Plus.

Update (3:30 p.m. EST): Following Deadline’s report (which was also backed by The Hollywood Reporter), Vogt-Roberts posted a photo of himself with Isaac to Twitter, and included some very Metal Gear Solid-themed emoji, in what appears to be additional confirmation of the actor’s casting as Solid Snake.