Kojima Productions has released the first teaser trailer for Death Stranding Isolations, the animated series expanding Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding world. The teaser arrived on Thursday during Beyond the Strand, the studio's 10th anniversary event in Tokyo, alongside a full story synopsis and a new name on the staff list.
The teaser gives the series a tagline that doubles as the synopsis's opening line: "My mom became a crater." It is the first footage released for the series since its announcement, and it puts E&H production's hand-drawn 2D animation front and center. The series is now billed for Disney+ or other Disney services.
Watch the first teaser trailer for Death Stranding Isolations below:
Kojima Productions also released the series' main poster alongside the teaser. The poster shows the young porter girl standing beside a Reverse Trike, carrying the tagline "My mom became a crater." above the Disney+ and Hulu logos and the 2027 window.
The studio also confirmed that renowned author Tow Ubukata is handling series composition and the screenplay. Ubukata won the Nihon SF Taisho Award in 2003 for Mardock Scramble, and his resume spans novels, games, comics and animation.
Takayuki Sano directs the series, with Hideo Kojima as executive producer and Ilya Kuvshinov as original character designer, joined by Sayaka Koiso as character designer. Animation is by E&H production, the studio behind Ninja Kamui, Bullet/Bullet and the Magic Knight Rayearth television series. "One of the unique abilities of entertainment is its power to enhance the spirituality of those who consume it, and I think this is something that Mr. Kojima's works have always achieved," Sano said. "As a result, I approached this production with an exceptionally strong sense of duty and responsibility."
What is Death Stranding Isolations about?
Death Stranding Isolations is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi anime series based on Kojima's Death Stranding video game, first released in 2019 and played by more than 20 million people worldwide. It tells a completely new story set in the games' world, separate from the video games themselves, in North America just after Sam Bridges reconnects the continent through the Chiral Network. The games continued with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which launched exclusively on PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025.
The series was first announced in November 2025 at the Disney+ Originals Preview at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, where Kojima and Sano took the stage together. The project marked Kojima Productions' first partnership with a global streaming platform, and new concept art by Kuvshinov was revealed alongside the announcement.
"I've always been a fan of Disney, since I was small, and I was glad that they showed my documentary on the platform," Kojima said at the Hong Kong event, referring to the 2023 documentary Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds. "When they approached me, I decided to work with them."
Kojima Productions describes the story of Death Stranding Isolations as follows:
"My mom became a crater." The Death Stranding — a catastrophic series of explosions caused when the dead crept into our world and collided with the living. In the wake of this cataclysm, many were forced to live in absolute isolation — among them, a young girl. Although this lonely existence was forced upon her, she soon grows to prefer solitude, eschewing all opportunities for real human connection and allowing herself to be strung along by fate. In Death Stranding , legendary game creator Hideo Kojima brought you a haunting vision of a shattered world. Now, that world expands into new frontiers with a brand-new animation series. Under the guidance of director Takayuki Sano, world-class hand-drawn animations have been brought to life by renowned studio E&H production ( Ninja Kamui , Bullet/Bullet , the Magic Knight Rayearth television series). The story is set in North America immediately after Sam — the protagonist of the game — reconnects the continent by means of the Chiral Network. However, as America is reborn from the ashes, the renewed connections that bind it together bring about new and unforeseen consequences. In this tumultuous new landscape, there are some who walk a different path to the one chosen by Sam and his Bridges comrades: a wise old man who connects people through a method that defies all reckoning; a female soldier ensnared in a cycle of war and destruction; a boy who seethes with rage at the absurdity of his life... and of course, the girl who chose to sever all ties with the outside world... Fate has other plans for her, however, and chance encounters see her launched headfirst into a world she does not recognize.
Death Stranding Isolations will stream exclusively on Disney+ or other Disney services in 2027, with the teaser's branding pointing to Hulu as one of those services. No narrower premiere window has been announced.
