Metal Gear Solid voice actor David Hayter says there’s no longer any hard feelings about the decision to drop him for the fifth game in the series.
Hayter was the voice of Solid Snake and Naked Snake in the Metal Gear series, and appeared in eight games – four main series entries, a remake and three handheld spin-offs – before being dropped by Konami.
For Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and its prologue title Ground Zeroes, Snake was instead played by 24 actor Kiefer Sutherland, making it the first main series entry not to involve Hayter.
At the time, Hayter refused to play the game, telling Game Informer back in 2016: “That’ll be 60 hours of humiliation that I can’t get to. I haven’t played the last two iterations [Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain] because it’s just too painful.”
A decade later, however, Hayter has now revealed that he has now played Metal Gear Solid 5 and met Kiefer Sutherland, and has no ill will towards either the game or his in-game replacement.
“There was reluctance,” he said about approaching Metal Gear Solid 5. “I didn’t want to play the game because I figured it would hurt my feelings. Then, you know, 10 years went by and I was like ‘ah, to hell with my feelings. What do I care?’
“I’m a screenwriter, so I get fired for a living – like, I literally, eventually, get fired from every single gig that I’ve got – and I’m not a child. I was like: ‘Stop being a baby and play the game.’ So I played it. It’s amazing.”
Hayter explained that he used to get insulted when fans would tell him the their favourite game in the series was the one he wasn’t in, but that now he’s played it he probably agrees with them.
“I would ask fans ‘what’s your favourite Metal Gear?’ and if they said Metal Gear Solid 5 I’d be like: ‘What the hell, dude? Like, you know, thanks. Do you wanna give me a paper cut as well? Maybe pour some lemon juice on it?’
“And then I played it and I’m like, ‘I think this is my favourite gameplay of the series.’ The fact that you can go into the same scenario each time, and the [enemy] soldier’s gonna be doing the same thing, but you can take on different routes or different strategies of attack, makes it feel like time travel.
“So, yes, that was badass. So far as I’m concerned, all is forgiven.”
Hayter revealed that he also bumped into Keifer Sutherland at a bar in Dallas and the pair “had a bunch of drinks”.
“And he’s a great guy, you know?” he said. “No, no ill will. All is forgiven.”
Fans who have been missing Hayter’s voice will be able to hear him again in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, which will be released on August 28 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.