Movies

Jordan Vogt-Roberts Releases 'Metal Gear' Concept Art That May Influence The Film [Updated]

Metal Gear Solid concept art
By Ben Pearson/

Update: This post has been updated with the additional concept art. Check it out in the thread below.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) has been interested in making a Metal Gear movie for years. He's totally immersed himself in the world of the popular video game series, even befriending creator Hideo Kojima, and I can't wait to see what he eventually does with a movie version.

To celebrate the 31st anniversary of the original Metal Gear game, Vogt-Roberts has announced that over the next 31 days, he's going to be sharing pieces of fan art that might influence the look of the eventual film – assuming it ever makes it into production. Even if you've never played any of the games, I think you're going to want to see this version of the movie after you check out these images.

Vogt-Roberts took to Twitter to announce his #MetalGear31st celebration with a video that lays out the whole idea:

According to the video above,"that bearded director, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, will be releasing concept art he created with a series of 'next gen artists.' For the next 31 days, we will be releasing 31 pieces of art. We must stress that this is 'fan art', and is not meant to represent what is or is not in the forthcoming film." But if the first piece of art is any indication, this is high-quality stuff that any movie version should absolutely take into account when designing its mechs and characters.

Here's the thread of Metal Gear concept art, which we'll be updating sporadically over the next month.

For those who don't know, Metal Gear essentially invented the concept of stealth gameplay. The original game, and the subsequent Metal Gear Solid games, take place in an alternate timeline in which robotics and technology quickly become even more advanced after World War II, resulting in storylines in which special operative soldiers are tasked with finding and stopping massive "Metal Gears", huge mechas that have the ability to launch nuclear weapons. That's about as basic a description as you'll find, and it doesn't even come close to scratching the surface of the intricacies and complexities of the games.

This franchise is unlike anything else, as Vogt-Roberts told us in an interview last year:

"Everyone understands that it would be such an easy thing to do wrong. It would be so easy to sort of say, Metal Gear Solid is Mission: Impossible. It's not. Metal Gear Solid is G.I. Joe. It's not. Metal Gear Solid is X. It's not. Metal Gear Solid is Metal Gear Solid. There's nothing like Metal Gear Solid on the planet tonally, visually, in terms of characters. Like the characters are walking philosophies. There is nothing like the voice of that game and it's so idiosyncratic to Kojima. And to his team. And unlike comic books that have had writers, hundreds of writers over the course of decades, you've essentially had one person guiding one massive, massive story. And so it's so specific to his point of view. And my job right now when working on the script with the studio is to capture that. Because there would be no greater offense to me on the planet than making a bad Metal Gear movie. That would be a like a Scarlet Letter of epic proportions that I would not be able to live with myself with."

On the surface, this may look like just another franchise in which humans face off against giant robots, it's so much more than that. Personally, I've only played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but it's obvious that this game series has a unique fusion of military realism and totally bonkers anime craziness that helps it stand out from its contemporaries.

Remember how the Deadpool movie was kicking around in development for years before fans eventually went nuts over that video test that leaked online? That'd be cool if something similar happened here, with these images serving as the spark that finally gets this movie off the ground. Here's hoping Vogt-Roberts gets to make a big, weird adaptation that really swings for the fences. His passion for the property comes through so clearly every time he talks about it, and I can't wait to see what he has in store.

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