Kurt Russel Talks About Why He Did Not Voice Solid Snake In Metal Gear Solid

It’s a common piece of trivia for any Metal Gear fan that Solid Snake was heavily inspired by Kurt Russel’s role as Snake Plissken in Escape From New York. Prior to the release of the original Metal Gear Solid, Kurt Russel was even approached to voice Solid Snake in the PS1 title which the actor reportedly turned down. Speaking to GQ magazine in an interview breaking down his most iconic characters, Russel addresses why he chose not to work on Metal Gear Solid.

When asked about the rumors of him voicing the character of Solid Snake (timestamp is 2:43), Russel shares how he approaches each character he plays. He shares that he’s a “movie guy” and thus places himself in a very specific mindset to play each of his characters whether it’s Snake Plissken from Escape from New York or R.J MacReady from The Thing. 

He expresses his disinterest in milking money off his iconic personalities, stating that he would rather create a new character rather than “bleed off” another iconic character. Russel also talks about his colleague John Carpenter, with whom he has created some of his most memorable characters in films like The Thing, Escape From New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and many more. 

I come from a different era, I wasn’t interested in expanding financially off of something that we had created or that I had created in terms of character and I get business people sure, or we could do this with that, we could do this with that or we could do this with that and then I look at it and that’s not written by John, that’s not right. John is not here to do this, why am I? Lets go do something new, lets go do something fresh, lets create another iconic character rather than saying what can we bleed off this iconic character.”

In a way, it might have been a good thing that Russel turned down the role of Snake. In 2024, almost a decade after Snake’s last foray into the series, the character is still beloved and recognized in the gaming zeitgeist. Only a few weeks ago, the character made his appearance in one of the biggest online games in the world, Fortnite, as its latest guest character. 

After a long hiatus, Metal Gear itself is coming back strongly with a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as well as a rumored remake of the original Metal Gear Solid. The series also got a new lease in life thanks to the  Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 which was released on October 24, 2023, for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, and the Nintendo Switch. 

The Master Collection contains the original Metal Gear 1 and 2 released for the MSX2 as well as the MGS trilogy for the PS1 and PS2. eXputer’s Muhammad Roaim Chohan scored the collection a 3.5/5, saying, “Some technical issues aside, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 is a great way to experience some of the greatest games ever made.“