We know Hideo Kojima, the creative lead behind Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid, loves movies. The guy even says in his Twitter bio that “70% of [his] body is made of movies.” However, Kojima doesn’t often get to play characters in movies. He’s only had a handful of acting credits over the years. But he’s adding one more to his filmography this year: he’ll be playing a character in the Japanese dub of Zootopia 2.
Paul Molebrandt only has a few lines in Disney’s sequel, but the IT guy in the Zootopia Police Department office does pave the way for some pretty good scenes. Zootopia, its sequel, and the Zootopia+ mini-series play around a lot with the titular city’s shared space between multiple, differently-sized animals.
As a mole, Paul is much smaller than most of Zootopia 2’s main cast, and his few scenes really play around with that juxtaposition, so even when he’s not speaking, he’s giving the movie a lot of humorous space to work in. Kojima may not say much in the movie, but his character makes an impact in just a few short scenes. The role began with Josh Gad in the English original, who is best known in the Disney space for playing Olaf in the Frozen series.
Zootopia 2 is out here in the States, but the Japanese dub will enter theaters overseas on Friday, December 5. The sequel has already been a smash hit for Disney, having already passed half a billion at the box office in just one week, and the post-credits scene has big implications for a potential third movie that will probably come out sometime in the 2030s. So, hey, Kojima might reprise the role of Paul in the inevitable Zootopia 3 Japanese dub. Surely we’ll have OD and Physint by then, right?