Hi PlayStation Fans,
I’m Melina from Ninja Theory, the actress who plays Senua in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
I’m beyond excited to finally share that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has arrived on PlayStation 5. It’s been a long, intense, and deeply personal journey, and bringing this sequel to PlayStation truly feels like coming home.
When I first joined Ninja Theory over a decade ago, I wasn’t an actress, I was working behind the scenes as a video editor and videographer, capturing the team’s process, cutting trailers, and creating development diaries. Then one day, I was asked to step in as a stand-in for some early performance capture tests while they were looking for an actress to portray Senua. I was very scared to be in front of the camera, had no acting experience and honestly thought it would be a one-off thing to help out the team. But something about Senua struck a deep chord in me. I saw parts of myself in her, the pain, the fear, the fight and in many ways, it felt like I already knew her. Our director noticed that connection, and what began as a temporary stand-in quickly turned into something much bigger.
In 2017, we released Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice on PlayStation and PC. It was our first independently developed and self-published game. Raw, emotional, and incredibly personal. We worked closely with mental health professionals, neuroscientists, and people with lived experience of psychosis, including some of my own, to portray Senua’s world with honesty and care.
I was new to acting, but like everyone at Ninja Theory, I gave everything I had. Hellblade was a true team effort, every detail was shaped by a group of artists, designers, writers, animators, audio engineers, programmers, and more. We were a very small team with a big story to tell, and we all poured our hearts into bringing Senua’s Story to life. And when the game launched, the response from the PlayStation community was overwhelming. Your letters, your stories, your art, your connection to Senua, it really meant the world to all of us.
Now, I’m incredibly proud that Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has arrived on PlayStation 5, the very platform where Senua’s journey first began! This sequel has pushed us in every possible way. We traveled to Iceland and scanned real locations to capture its breathtaking landscapes and haunting atmosphere. I spent months in combat training to better understand Senua’s physicality, though I’m happy to say the more intense stunts were handled (far more gracefully) by our brilliant stunt team. We built a new performance capture stage, expanded our cast and crew, and pushed ourselves creatively and technically on every front. But despite the larger scale, Hellblade II is still deeply personal. At its heart, it’s about Senua, intimate, grounded, and human. This time, her journey isn’t only about surviving what’s within, but also learning how to connect with the world and people around her.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over a decade since I first stepped into that mocap suit. So much has changed since then, but Senua has never left me, and in many ways, we’ve grown together. To everyone who’s been with us from the beginning, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You believed in us when we were still finding our way. And to those discovering Senua for the first time, welcome aboard. I really hope her story speaks to you, the way it has spoken to us. Thank you!
Lots of love,
Melina Juergens
Senua
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Enhanced is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam and Game Pass.
