Why Kurt Russell turned down Metal Gear Solid

Hollywood icon Kurt Russell recently revealed why he passed on 2004 video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Russell’s portrayal of ex-Special Forces soldier Snake Plissken in 1981 cult classic Escape from New York was a major influence on Metal Gear franchise creator Hideo Kojima.

Kojima partly based protagonist Solid Snake on Plissken – something directly referenced in at least one entry in the series. Snake adopts the alias “Iroquois Pliskin” in 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Russell was also the top choice to voice Solid Snake’s “father,” Naked Snake/Big Boss, in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, however, he declined the role – and now we know why.

Why Kurt Russell turned down Metal Gear Solid 3

Russell explained that he wasn’t interested in cashing in on the popularity of his Snake Plissken performance in a career retrospective session with GQ.

“I come from a different era,” he said. “I wasn’t interested in expanding financially off of something we had created or that I had created in terms of a character.” Russell also made it clear he has no interest in revisiting the Snake Plissken part (or pastiches of it) without Escape from New York co-writer/director John Carpenter.

“I’d look at [a project] and say, ‘That’s not written by John,'” he said. “That doesn’t smell right. John’s not here to do this. I’m not gonna do that. Let’s go do something new, let’s do something fresh, let’s go create another iconic character, rather than saying ‘What can we bleed off this iconic character?'”

These statements track with Russell’s filmography to date. The star has only reprised the Snake Plissken role once, in 1996’s Escape from L.A., which was also co-written/directed by Carpenter.

Is another Snake Plissken movie happening?

Even so, rumblings of a third Snake Plissken adventure persist to this day. As recently as February 2023, the online rumor mill claimed that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella want Russell to don Snake’s eyepatch again in a belated third installment.

And then there are the fake sequels to consider. This includes faux follow-up Escape From Earth, which surfaced online in January 2024. However, despite its poster and lengthy plot synopsis, Escape from Earth isn’t real, and Russell isn’t officially attached to any Snake Plissken projects at this stage.