‘Metal Gear Solid’: Oscar Isaac Takes Solid Snake Role In Anticipated Video Game Adaptation

It’s taken ages for the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid movie to finally get going, but damn, it now has one Hell of an actor to play Solid Snake. Deadline reports Oscar Isaac will play the iconic hero of the classic stealth video game franchise, in a film directed by Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts.

Finally winning the role he’s been campaigning for, Isaac will take on the role of Solid Snake, who in the original 1987 NES game was a soldier sent to infiltrate an enemy base and destroy the Metal Gear, a nuclear-powered tank weapon. That was followed by a couple of sequels in the 8-bit era, but it was 1998’s Metal Gear Solid that ramped up the cinematic qualities that Kojima would become famous for. It’s unclear how much Vogt-Roberts’ film will take from the game’s storyline, which finds Snake infiltrating a nuclear facility to stop the terrorist threat FOXHOUND.

In what would also become a defining/polarizing Kojima trait, the storyline is dense with multiple twists and turns that can be tough to follow.

Add this to the list of incredible pop culture roles for Isaac. Of course, we recognize him as Poe Dameron from the latest Star Wars trilogy, but he’s also set to play Duke Atreides in Dune, Moon Knight in Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series, and even the title character in an adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina film retitled The Great Machine.

Vogt-Roberts has been on board to direct for what seems like ages, working from a script by Jurassic World writer Derek Connolly.

As for when Isaac will have time to shoot this, who knows? He’s currently working on HBO’s Scens from a Marriage alongside Jessica Chastain, and has a making-of The Godfather film with Jake Gyllenhaal and Barry Levinson.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.