Kojima’s next Death Stranding is a 2D anime on Disney+ in 2027, and honestly? I’m intrigued and

Why this announcement actually matters

Death Stranding is heading to Disney+ in 2027 as a hand-drawn 2D animated series called Death Stranding Isolations, and that combination made me do a double take. On one hand, Kojima’s universe lives or dies on mood-loneliness, liminal spaces, rain that punishes time-and a stylized 2D approach could actually intensify that. On the other, Disney+ isn’t the first platform I’d peg for bleak, adult sci-fi, and 2027 is a long hike through the Timefall. If you care about Death Stranding beyond celebrity faces and ladders across ravines, this is worth paying attention to.

Key takeaways

• Isolations is set during the first game, focused on new characters whose paths brush against Sam Bridges-so it’s expansion, not a retread.
• The show is fully hand-drawn 2D from E&H Production, with Kojima Productions overseeing—expect a distinct tone, not mocap cosplay.
• It’s a Disney+ exclusive in 2027; episode count and release cadence are still unknown.
• An animated film, Death Stranding Mosquito, is also in development, signaling a full transmedia push.

Breaking down the announcement

Isolations sticks to the world we know from Death Stranding (2019) and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (2025), but tells a parallel story about four fresh faces processing the end of the world in very different ways: an old man rejecting Sam’s “connect everyone” philosophy, a warrior who believes conflict is the only path forward, a boy nursing a grudge against Sam, and a girl who chooses solitude on purpose. Their stories intersect, but the point is perspective—how people live (or fail to) under the Death Stranding’s rules.

Visually, the team’s going fully traditional: hand-drawn 2D, with an emphasis on staging and expression. That’s a bold shift away from the games’ photoreal actors and performance capture. E&H Production is on animation duties, with Kojima Productions supervising, which hopefully keeps the mythos tight. Beyond the series, an animated film called Death Stranding Mosquito is in the works. This isn’t a one-off; it’s Kojima building a wider orbit around the core games.

Why this move makes sense right now

After DS2 hit PS5 in 2025, the franchise suddenly had momentum—and questions. Is Sam’s story the only way into this universe? Is the Chiral Network a blessing, a curse, or both? Isolations can keep the conversation going without spoiling DS2 or retelling DS1 beat-for-beat. That’s crucial. The best game adaptations lately—Arcane, Edgerunners, even Castlevania—worked because they expanded the world instead of photocopying it. Isolations’ pitch lines up with that trend.

The Disney+ part is the curveball. In many regions it carries mature content; in others, it’s still fighting the perception of being family-first. Death Stranding’s tone is mournful, sometimes gnarly, and often deeply weird. Can it keep that edge here? Probably, but it’s a fair question until we see a trailer. If the series sands down the rough bits—the dread of BTs, the unsettling soundscape, the weight of grief—it’ll miss what makes this universe stick.

Will 2D animation help or hurt Death Stranding?

This is the part that actually has me excited. Death Stranding’s horror is liminal: the silhouette of a beached thing in the fog, the way Timefall eats a world to rust, the quiet that makes your pulse loud in your ears. Stylized animation can turn those ideas into visual metaphor rather than literal VFX. Imagine smears of ink for Chiral clouds, skeletal linework for BT umbilicals, hard cuts and negative space to sell isolation. You can lean abstract in ways live action or photoreal CG often can’t.

Of course, execution is everything. Hand-drawn 2D is labor-intensive, and 2027 suggests a longer runway—good, if it means frames breathe instead of shortcuts everywhere. The series will live or die on pacing and sound design too. The games’ identity is tied to their music and ambient sound. Do we get mournful, space-to-think tracks in the vein of the games’ score? Do we hear anything that nods to those iconic Death Stranding moments without feeling like a cover band? Those choices will matter more than cameos.

What gamers should expect (and watch out for)

Because it’s set during DS1, don’t expect seismic canon changes—think parallel stories that color in the map’s edges. That’s smart, as it avoids stepping on DS2’s toes while still letting the writers explore the “connection vs isolation” theme from other angles. If Sam shows up, it should be to reframe him through someone else’s eyes, not to hog the screen.

On the practical side, it’s a waiting game. We don’t have episode count, release cadence, or trailers yet. The Disney+ exclusivity could be convenient (one sub), or annoying if your region’s catalog is fragmented. And let’s acknowledge fatigue: the IP-to-streaming conveyor belt rarely stops. The positive sign here is intent—Isolations is framed as an original story in the same world, which is where adaptations shine. The red flag is scope creep. There’s also an animated film on deck, and when too many projects chase the same themes at once, coherence gets slippery.

TL;DR

Death Stranding Isolations is a hand-drawn 2D series set during DS1, coming exclusively to Disney+ in 2027. The premise—new characters brushing against Sam’s path—sounds like the right kind of expansion, and animation could amplify the universe’s mood. But until we see footage, keep expectations steady and watch how Disney+ handles the tone, the music, and the weirdness that makes Death Stranding, well, Death Stranding.