David Hayter was famed among gamers as the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games, until notorious star chaser Hideo Kojima unceremoniously replaced him with Kiefer Sutherland in Metal Gear Solid 5. Aside from a few cameo appearances here and there, Hayter's been out of the role since then, but a recent tease on X is giving some fans hope that he might be coming back.
"I was in the booth today," Hayter posted (via Eurogamer). "Playing a role I've not played, since..."
And then, in case that was too subtle, he followed with an animated image of Snake drawing a knife.
pic.twitter.com/s15E4YlW2uOctober 4, 2024
The tease is about as on-the-nose as it gets—the big question is in where this turn as Snake will actually land. And on that front, the reaction is relatively restrained. Some fans suspect he's doing voice work for an advertisement or promotional material, or possibly some supplemental work for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a remake of MGS3 from 2004. Naturally, a theory that Konami is doing a new Hayter dub for Metal Gear Solid 5 is also floating around out there.
But there is some hope too that Hayter is coming back to the role for real. Hayter's made no secret that he didn't like the way he was cut from the role, but things have changed in some very big ways since then, most notably that Kojima is out.
"Hayter is probably much more open to working on Metal Gear again now that Kojima is out of the picture," redditor DifferentlyTiffany wrote. "He was done so dirty after years of iconic performances, but it seems like Konami is really trying to build bridges in this new wave of Metal Gear. Makes sense they would reach out to the man himself."
Hayter himself appears happy to let bygones be: He narrated the first part of the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Series, a video crash-course in series lore—and in a 2023 teaser for that series he said (teasingly), "I hope you're ready, because this is only the beginning."
All of which adds up to this: David Hayter is apparently doing something Snake-related that probably won't add up to anything too exciting—unless it does. Govern yourselves, and your expectations, accordingly.
