Everything We Know About Amazon's Upcoming God Of War Series
The "God of War" games have changed quite a lot since their Greek origins, perhaps most notably in how players interact with the games' narratives. The original trilogy and its spin-offs focused on making players feel like a whirlwind of death and brutality rather than the development of its story. The original "God of War" games certainly had iconic story moments, but both the 2018 "God of War" reboot and its sequel present a more complete narrative — "God of War: Ragnarok" even won Best Narrative at The Game Awards. The story of the rebooted games has been so well received that it's now set to be adapted into a live-action TV series at Amazon Studios.
Amazon is no stranger to adapting some of the biggest pop culture franchises to the screen, like the divisive Lord of the Rings show "Rings of Power." PlayStation itself has had several of its biggest games brought to life with movies like "Uncharted" and the upcoming HBO exclusive "The Last Of Us" adaptation. Rumors of a "God of War" show began earlier in 2022, and in a tweet from December 14, the Amazon Prime Video Twitter account confirmed that "God of War" is coming. There aren't a lot of official details yet, and recent complaints about "The Witcher" and "Halo" adaptations have some fans nervous about yet another game adaptation.
God of War is coming. pic.twitter.com/GzbyutRO2k
— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) December 14, 2022
Cast and crew for the live action God of War series
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a press release from Amazon goes over some new details for the "God of War" series, including some of the crew, the general story direction, and what else to expect from the upcoming adaptation. The series' showrunner will be Rafe Judkins, who wrote the screenplay for the movie version of the "Uncharted" games as well as produced "The Wheel of Time" for Amazon Studios. Joining him as writers and executive producers on the series are Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, a screenwriting duo best known for "Children of Men" and "Iron Man."
The series will be produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios chiefly in association with PlayStation Productions — it makes sense, then, that Judkins was tapped to be showrunner as he worked on major franchise adaptations for both Amazon and PlayStation before. Santa Monica Studio creative director Cory Barlog, who directed the first game of the Norse saga, will also be an executive producer on the series.
There are a few other executive producers from PlayStation Productions and Santa Monica Studios as well, but unfortunately there isn't any official information on who will be cast in Amazon's "God of War" show. There are plenty of fan theories as to who will play Kratos — and plenty of fans who want Christopher Judge to reprise the role in live action — but we will have to wait a bit longer to learn anything official.
What will Amazon's God of War be about?
According to the press release, the series will follow the plot of the first game — the 2018 "God of War" reboot — almost exactly. "Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak — his wife's final wish," the press release says, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Kratos soon realizes the journey is an epic quest in disguise, one which will test the bonds between father and son, and force Kratos to battle new gods and monsters for the fate of the world."
Though the "God of War" series was once known for its Greek setting, it's now much more popularly associated with Midgard and the Norse saga, so it makes sense for the show to follow this storyline. Kratos' heritage and past won't be completely ignored, though, as the release says he comes to Midgard to hang up his weapons in the effort to escape his "blood-soaked past."
How closely the series will follow the story and lore of the games is a mystery. Going off of Amazon's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" and the showrunner's work on "The Wheel of Time," it should stay relatively true to the Norse narrative.
Is there a trailer for the God of War adaptation?
Fans first learned about the possibility of a "God of War" series back in March 2022 when it was revealed that Amazon Studios was in talks to adapt the games. It was only in December that the show was confirmed to be in development via tweet. In that time fans barely learned anything about the highly anticipated show, and even the official reveal was not much more than a tweet. Aside from the confirmation post from Prime Video and the press release, there isn't anything else to go off of, let alone a full trailer.
To compare the show to another PlayStation Productions series, HBO's "The Last of Us" was revealed back in 2021 but the first official trailer came out in November 2022. HBO's "The Last of Us" is set to come out on January 15, 2023 as an exclusive to the streaming service. "The Rings of Power" was announced in 2020 and came out in mid-2022. Based on these timelines, we can expect a trailer before the end of 2023 for a possible release date sometime in 2024.