Redditors have posted pictures driving the point home that the floating child with a gas mask from the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain trailer bares more than a passing resemblance to infamous Metal Gear Solid boss Psycho Mantis.
Bear with me, explaining this will mean some spoilers, although if you’re reading this now that shouldn’t be such a problem.
Once mentioned by series creator Hideo Kojima as his favorite villain in the franchise, Psycho Mantis is infamous in the fandom for the fourth wall breaking moment in Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation when he reads off your memory card and forces you to move your controller to the other port.
In the Gamecube remake Twin Snakes, there is a particular scene of him floating into the walls that resembles some of the footage from The Phantom Pain.
Now, looking at the spoiled Phantom Pain shots, the resemblance of the boy to Mantis is there, but considering how the game operates, this is by no means a 100 % assurance that it would be him.
What really drew the theory out, however, was a rediscovered official illustration from artist Yoji Shinkawa’s Facebook page. The art shows Mantis using a similar pose as the child, also wearing a gas mask and extended sleeves that drape past his arms.
Without delving too much into the lore, it would make sense if Mantis was the child shown in this trailer. It is speculated he was born between the mid-60s to 70s. That’s as far as I’ll go when it comes to speculation, but many fans do think this is a near certainty, that it would be surprising if it weren’t the case. If the prior marketing on The Phantom Pain is any indication, the obvious guess is probably the correct one.
Source: Reddit
