Head transplant doctor's MGS5 similarity spawns web of conspiracy

The Internet knows no limits to its imagination and the drama it stirs up, and now the doctor best known for his head transplant plans has been swept up into it all. The hoopla started about a week ago when an innocent post was made on NeoGAF comparing a picture of Dr. Sergio Canavero with a doctor character from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (pictures after the jump). This similarity — which is indeed striking — then took off in what has become nothing short of a web of conspiracy, with huge amounts of Internet sleuthing weaving together a massive web of speculation that seems really crazy.

The extent of the speculation is far too grand at this point to explain, so you're going to have to wade into the mess yourself to fully see it all. The gist, however, is that the real-life head transplant doctor looks more or less identical to the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain doctor as seen in the game's trailer. The question was then posed on the NeoGAF forums: "Coincidence? or Kojima? You decide."

This lead to an insane piecing together of "clues", attempts to link to the two together, and more. The name of the head transplant project, an old Kojima quote, articles written by Canavero on phantom pain, and more were all cited as possible connections between the two. Some took it even further and contacted the doctor themselves to try to get to the end of it all.

The doctor (the real-life one, that is) went on to speak to the folks at Kotaku, laying to rest the speculation and saying that he hasn't ever had any sort of contact with Konami/Kojima and that he hadn't even been aware of their existence until the hoopla started. Amongst the many things he had to say, including a possible lawsuit, he said:

"It's just surprising that despite having been around the world, speaking at more than 300 medical conferences about what could be the biggest medical achievement in history, I feel like now I'm at the peak of my popularity thanks to a video game...a video game I wasn't even involved in to begin with."

SOURCE: Kotaku