Death Stranding anime gets its title, Isolations, and a Disney+ teaser

From working title to Isolations

This isn't the first we've heard of the show. According to Inven Global, Kojima Productions had already teased its first global streaming partnership with Disney+, and its plans for an anime, at last year's Disney+ Originals Preview event. With the teaser, the studio dropped the working-title tag and confirmed the final name. 4Gamer reports that in Japan the series will stream under Disney+'s "Star" brand.

What the teaser shows

Inven Global describes the teaser as about 45 seconds long. It opens on a porter at the edge of a cliff, looking down at a huge crater with a blue column rising from its centre. Then it moves indoors, where a figure of Ludens, Kojima Productions' mascot, sits near a sleeping blonde girl wearing a visor with the word "SLEEP" on it.

From there it gets very Death Stranding. Inven Global lists black tar handprints appearing on glass, countless black hands surging from the ground and an unidentified entity approaching the girl, before a close-up of her green eyes as she wakes gasping from a nightmare. It closes on the title logo and the line "Exclusively on Disney+ in 2027."

4Gamer adds that a new key visual shows the girl with a giant crater behind her, alongside a line that translates roughly as "My mama became a crater."

The story

Isolations is set in the same world and the same period as the original game, but tells its own original story. Inven Global, citing the studio's synopsis, says it takes place while Sam Porter Bridges was crossing North America to reconnect the continent, and follows how unnamed people struggled with isolation and disconnection in their own ways. 4Gamer describes the plot as the story of a girl who has rejected any connection with the world and, through a new encounter, heads somewhere unknown.

Who's making it

• Executive producer: Hideo Kojima, who leads the overall project, per Inven Global.
• Animation: E&H Production, the studio behind Ninja Kamui and BULLET/BULLET, according to both outlets.
• Director: Takayuki Sano, whom Inven Global credits as an animation director on Attack on Titan Final Season, Ninja Kamui and BULLET/BULLET.
• Series composition: Tow Ubukata, named in the teaser's credits for the first time, Inven Global says.
• Character designs: Ilya Kuvshinov. 4Gamer notes he did character design for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.

Inven Global also notes that the Death Stranding IP has passed 20 million cumulative players worldwide.

When can you watch it?

Not yet. Isolations premieres exclusively on Disney+ in 2027, and Inven Global says the exact date and more details will come later through Kojima Productions' official website and YouTube channel.

Riley's take: A kid in a "SLEEP" visor and a line about a mother turning into a crater is about as Death Stranding as a teaser can get in 45 seconds. Following ordinary people living in Sam's shadow instead of Sam himself sounds to me like the smartest way to adapt a game I've always read as being about strangers leaving things behind for each other.