David Hayter, the original voice actor for Solid Snake and Naked Snake/Big Boss in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, has recently made a surprise announcement on his personal Twitter/X account that may have hinted at his return to his most iconic role.
After this cryptic revelation, he followed it up by posting a GIF of Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. While Hayter didn’t give any explicit confirmation, this most likely means that he’s back at portraying the character that would eventually become Big Boss in the upcoming Snake Eater remake.
This is an especially interesting new piece of information because Konami had previously announced that Metal Gear Solid Delta will reuse all the characters’ voices from the original 2005 PS2 release. This means that, even though we technically knew that Hayter was going to return to the role for a while, his recent announcement indicates that he may have had to record entirely new voice lines.
For what project did Hayter record new voice lines?
Fans reacted to Hayter’s post with a lot of excitement, but they immediately began speculating about what these new recordings may be for. It’s possible that he recorded lines for promotional material for Metal Gear Solid Delta, like a new trailer or some form of online content. Another possibility is that, while Konami tried to reuse as many voice recordings as possible, Hayter still had to record a few new lines for brand-new sections of the game, like tutorials or additional cutscenes.
Of course, some fans believe that these recordings may be tied to a different project set within the Metal Gear universe, with some of the ideas floating around being a potential re-release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in Volume 2 of the MGS Master Collection or maybe even an entirely new entry. Even though series creator Hideo Kojima left the company in 2015, there is a precedent for Konami making Metal Gear games without his direct involvement, with one of the most prominent examples being Portable Ops, a game in which Hayter voiced Naked Snake as well.
Why Hayter’s return is such a big deal for the Metal Gear Solid franchise
The community reacted positively to Hayter’s potential return as Naked Snake because this would be his first time recording new voice lines for the character in a game since Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which originally launched back in 2010. Even though he was the iconic voice actor who brought both Big Boss and his clone, Solid Snake, to life for over 16 years, Hideo Kojima replaced him with Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland during the production of Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.
Back in the day, most fans of the series responded negatively to this decision, so now they are ecstatic about the fact that they will not only get to hear him once again as Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater but that he may have also recorded entirely new lines as this legendary character after more than a decade.
