Returning Characters Confirmed for Death Stranding 2

This article contains spoilers from Death Stranding.Hideo Kojima's 2019 sci-fi adventure was a bizarre game. The story took place in a strange post-apocalyptic future that could get confusing even with context, and the plot was effectively a postal simulator centered around delivering items between different places. As weird as it was, it proved to be a compelling experience and a huge hit. Its strangeness fascinated players, and its complex characters proved particularly interesting. Being such a huge hit, a sequel was inevitable.

Now Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is on the horizon, and gamers have already gotten some interesting reveals. There have been two trailers so far, both of which reveal interesting details but also leave a lot of unanswered questions. We do, however, know that the game will feature some familiar faces. Some of them come with more questions and peculiar new designs, but it is nice to see the characters that players came to love in the first game making a return.

Death Stranding 2's Biggest Mystery is No Closer To Being Solved After The State of Play Trailer

Even after the latest State of Play trailer for Death Stranding 2, Elle Fanning's role in the sequel remains shrouded in mystery.

5 Deadman

Sam's Man on the Inside

"Deadman" was the scientist who first introduced Sam to the UCA, and quickly became one of his closest allies. "Deadman" was ostensibly a nickname referring to his background as a coroner before the Death Stranding, but it actually has a far more literal meaning. He turns out to actually be a kind of Frankenstein's monster, a person artificially constructed and brought to life by combining parts from various cadavers. Despite the unsettling reveal, he proves himself to be a nice guy, and spends a lot of the game risking his life to help Sam uncover top secret information about the UCA and the Death Stranding.

Role in Death Stranding 2

Deadman doesn't physically appear in either trailer, but his voice is briefly heard in the second. At the very end, Sam is seen listening to Deadman as he reveals a strange piece of information about Lou. Based on this, it is unclear how big a part Deadman will have in the sequel, but it looks like he will be filling a similar role to the first game. That is, he is presumably an ally who has a vested interest in uncovering the truth and wants to get that information to Sam whenever possible.

4 Fragile

One of Sam's Best Friends

Fragile was the owner of Fragile Express, and a major ally to Sam during the first game. She seemed like a strange character, with some curious abilities. She could teleport seemingly at will, and proved to be an expert at dealing with BTs. Over the course of the game, she becomes a close friend of Sam's.

Players eventually learn that she was tricked into delivering nuclear bombs and, after trying to stop it, Higgs decided to punish her by making her walk through timefall rain wearing next to nothing. But despite the scarring, she wasn't ready to give up. As she said, "I'm Fragile, but I'm not fragile."

A screenshot of Sam Porter Bridges posing with BB in Death Stranding.

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Role in Death Stranding 2

The two trailers offer a fair bit of insight into Fragile's role in the sequel. The first indicates that she was, at one point, acting as a mother figure to Lou. The second features her quite prominently, including some curious design choices. For some reason, she now has a pair of gloved hands on her shoulders that appear to be capable of moving. She also has a strange companion that looks like a ventriloquist dummy animated in stop-motion. She seems to have found a way of healing her timefall scars, as they're not visible, and she claims to be Fragile "in name only."

The most significant thing shown in the trailer is Fragile has started a new company called Drawbridge and has a ship called the Magellan. This ship appears to be acting as a base for Sam, who seems to be interested in expanding on his mission from the first game.

In both trailers, Fragile implies she has a crew, but they aren't shown. While unconfirmed, it is possible that this crew might include some of Sam's allies from the first game.

3 Higgs Monaghan

The Terrorist Bent on Extinction

Higgs was a major antagonist throughout the original Death Stranding. He was the leader of a terrorist organization who developed fanatical ideas about the incoming Sixth Mass Extinction. Much of the game seemed to set him up as the "extinction entity" expected to wipe out humanity. This turned out to be a red herring, but one so good that even he believed it.

By the time he meets Sam, Higgs is already trying to set a total extinction event in motion, and even tricks Sam into furthering that end. It also turns out he was cruel to Fragile, incurring her wrath. He was last seen on the beach after his boss fight, when Fragile is left to kill him, but players later find out she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Role in Death Stranding 2

Fans get a whole sequence with Higgs in the second trailer. He still has his charismatic personality, but he looks noticeably different. He has swapped his green cloak and gold mask for a red mask and red-and-gold armor, accompanied by Joker-like face paint. For some reason, he now has an electric guitar that's also a sword and a shotgun.

Higgs appears to be returning as the antagonist, likely looking for revenge against Sam and Fragile. He also seems to know something about Lou. Higgs appears to be relying more on robots now, but the trailers haven't yet revealed why.

2 Lou

The Bridge Baby Adopted by Sam

"Lou" was the name Sam gave to his Brigde Baby during the first game. Over the course of the story, Sam developed a strong bond with Lou, who helped him detect BTs. In the end, Sam ended up managing to remove Lou from the tank and adopted him, though he discovered that "he" was actually a "she." Players do get some apparent backstory, but that also turns out to be a red herring. The memories that seemed experienced from Lou turn out to be Sam's.

Death Stranding 2 Should Take More of a Show, Not Tell Approach

While the story of the original Death Stranding took major use of exposition to tell its story, the sequel should show the world more clearly.

Role in Death Stranding 2

This one is a bit weird, and hard to work out with certainty. The teaser trailer appears to show Fragile attempting to escape a disaster with Lou, only to watch the baby die. Lou's death is also mentioned in the second trailer, where viewers learn it may or may not have been Higgs' doing. The weird part is that Higgs implies he knows something, and the scene culminates in him being betrayed by one of his robots — accompanied by Lou's giggles. There's also a scene that appears to depict Sam holding Lou, implying that the situation isn't so clear-cut. There is also the interesting detail that Sam still carries a BB tank, but it is shown to be empty.

It's clear that Lou has some role to play in the game. One possibility, although this is pure conjecture, is that Lou is the unidentified female patient examined at the beginning, and later seen floating above an operating table.

1 Sam Porter-Bridges

The Heroic Postal Worker Who United America

Sam Bridges was the player character in Death Stranding, a mail carrier in the game's peculiar post-apocalyptic world. He also had a pretty bizarre story, even if the weirder parts take a while to show themselves. Players learned that he was an early Bridge Baby whose death and retrieval from the beach turned out to be a big part of starting the Death Stranding. His goal through most of the game was to expand the Chiral network as a means of connecting people across America, who had been isolated by the disaster.

Role in Death Stranding 2

Sam appears to be returning as the protagonist in the sequel, though it remains to be seen whether he will be the only playable character. Like the first game, his goal seems to be centered around making deliveries while bringing more people in the Chiral network. But this time, he is working outside of America, possibly off the grid. Viewers can see that he has been affected by a tragic incident involving Lou, probably the one shown in the teaser trailer, and this will likely be a big part of his characterization.