“John Carpenter didn’t write it”: why Kurt Russell refused to act in this saga

Addressing rumors that he was offered the role, Kurt Russell explains why he didn’t voice the Metal Gear character(s) during an interview with GQ (which will be revealed at the end of the article). A solid video game franchise that he was one of the inspirations for. He specifies that it is important for him to work on new characters rather than offering new versions of old ones.

“There have been many times when people wanted to do something. I do not know. I’m a movie guy“- said the actor. “You have to understand that from my perspective, whether it was Elvis or Plissken the Snake or Jack Burton or RJ MacReady, that was the project. It was him. You will get into that state of mind. You create it. You want to make this world a reality.“

In case you didn’t know, John Carpenter’s 1997 science fiction classic New York, and especially the character of Snake Plissken Kurt RussellPowerful inspired Metal Gear video games.

A powerful tribute

I remind you that St New York 1997 (1981), we follow the adventures of Snake Plissken, a multi-disturbed ex-soldier and now outlaw who is sent as a prisoner to the island of Manhattan, which has been transformed into a giant open-air space. When the President of the United States also finds himself trapped in an ultra-violent New York City, the government calls on Snake to help him.

Hideo Kojima, then 28, was fascinated. He created the video game Metal Gear in 1987, inspired by and paying tribute to the film and its protagonist, the first iconic game from one of the most famous video game franchises that launched the infiltration genre.

And you don’t have to look far for his homage: the character of Solid Snake, as well as Naked Snake (the main character of Metal Gear Solid 3 and the genetic father of Solid Snake) is directly inspired by Snake Plissken. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake uses the alias Iroquois Pliskin, pretending to be a Marine SEAL soldier. Finally, in Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake wears a patch over his right eye, symmetrical to Plissken, who has one over his left eye: thus, the characters are both one-eyed.

Without John Carpenter, no!

In the end it was David Hayter who voiced the various versions of Snake. Although it would be interesting to see how the game series sounded with the iconic voice Kurt RussellThe actor went on to explain why he refuses to take on roles that build on previously established characters.

“I wasn’t interested in financially developing what we created or what I created character-wise.“, he said. “Of course, I can hear business people: “We could do this with this, or this. I look at him and say: this is not written by John. It doesn’t smell good. John isn’t here to do that. I’m not going to do that. Let’s do something new. Let’s create another iconic character instead of saying, “What can we make of this iconic character?”“

Meanwhile, fans of the game are left waiting as a new main game hasn’t been released since 2015’s Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

as for Kurt RussellWe can soon find him in Andrew Patterson’s crime drama and thriller The Rivals of Amziah King, alongside Matthew McConaughey.

In the meantime, you can find him in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is streaming on Apple TV+.

Watch the original Kurt Russell interview with GQ below: