It's just been announced that Hideo Kojima has a cameo in Zootopia 2, a project that absolutely no one would have expected the Metal Gear Solid creator to have appeared in. While the legendary video game director has had cameos in a range of video games over the last few decades, Kojima has rarely appeared in a movie, especially one as huge as Zootopia 2.
That said, Hideo Kojima has worn his cinematic influences on his sleeve for decades. Kojima has stated many times that the Metal Gear Solid series was heavily inspired by the likes of James Bond, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, and Escape from New York, and the games themselves are packed with both subtle and overt references to specific movies and the wider filmmaking industry.
Along with the countless references to movies and a clear focus on delivering cinematic narratives in his games, Hideo Kojima has frequently shared his love for cinema via social media, with the game creator posting short-form movie reviews often on sites like X, where his bio also states "70% of my body is made of movies". Back in September 2023, Kojima took part in Criterion's "Closet Picks" series, where actors and directors discuss their favorite movies. He used his five minutes in the closet to highlight his favorite Japanese films of the 1950s and 60s, such as Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. In more recent years, Kojima has tried to merge his love for movies and games by hiring high-profile actors like Norman Reedus, Elle Fanning, and Léa Seydoux, and by including cameos from renowned movie directors like Nicolas Winding Refn in Death Stranding and its sequel.
Hideo Kojima Has a Cameo in Zootopia 2
But now the script has been flipped, and Hideo Kojima is the one making a cameo in the world of cinema. First reported on by Famitsu, Hideo Kojima is making a voice cameo in the Japanese version of Zootopia 2, the sequel to Disney's 2016 billion-dollar animated hit about anthropomorphic animals living together in a modern metropolis. Kojima was reportedly approached directly by Jared Bush, Zootopia 2's co-director and CCO of Disney Animation Studios, with the offer to voice Paul Moldebrandt, a Zootopia police officer working alongside main protagonists Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.
In a press release shared by Famitsu, Hideo Kojima shared his excitement regarding the role, saying:
"I've had plenty of experience with cameos in live-action films and games, but this is my first time dubbing an animated feature film. And it's from Disney, of all places! And it's a sequel to my favorite film, Zootopia!
Kojima goes on to say that he believes the first Zootopia to be the "pinnacle of Disney animation," with its social themes and humor being easily digestible for all ages. Kojima also shared his experience of being on the other side of the recording booth, expressing that he "learned a lot from the experience of actually acting," such as realizing how much attention voice actors pay to even small details like the turning of script pages during recording sessions.
As Hideo Kojima mentioned in the official Zootopia 2 press release announcing his cameo, he's made many appearances over the years in both video games and live-action projects. His most prominent cameos have come from the Metal Gear Solid series, where his appearance has been used for both blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter eggs and fully-modeled characters that are the focal points of side missions. Kojima also has a very overt cameo during Cyberpunk 2077's main story, where he appears in the Konpeki Plaza hotel as a Braindance producer.
In the world of live-action, Kojima appeared in 2000's Versus and 2003's Azumi as an uncredited extra, as well as the two TV miniseries The Eleven Little Roosters and Too Old to Die Young, the former being a 2017 spy thriller made by Rooster Teeth and the latter being a 2019 crime thriller co-created by Nicolas Winding Refn.
Source: Famitsu