Video game adaptations once had a reputation as often being pretty horrible, but nowadays Hollywood is doing everything in its power to reverse that notion. The Streaming Wars have led to platforms launching show after show in hopes of winning our hard-earned attention (and cash), and from the looks of things TV series based on video games are going to be the next front of the battle.
Paramount+ is debuting Halo later this month, Netflix had Arcane and is developing a series based on Resident Evil, HBO is working on the post-apocalyptic zombie drama The Last of Us (starring Game of Thrones alums Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey), Peacock just announced a Twisted Metal show starring Anthony Mackie, and Amazon is developing shows based on Mass Effect and Fallout, the latter of which will star Walton Goggins. It’s a lot. But if there’s one thing that companies have learned, it’s that consumers always want more.
And so, Deadline reports that Amazon is currently in talks to develop a show based on God of War, one of the biggest action-adventure franchises on the PlayStation. The series follows Kratos, a Spartan soldier who is turned into a weapon of death by the Greek God of War Ares. After accidentally killing his own family, Kratos swears a bloody vendetta against Ares, which leads to him becoming the God of War himself.
The series has since evolved; in 2018 a new God of War game saw an older and more weary Kratos hiding out in the Norse wilderness, raising his son Atreus while contending with the Norse gods and monsters of myth. A new installment, God of War: Ragnarok, is due out this year.
The Expanse writers may make a God of War show for Amazon
I can’t lie: it’s a little hard to get too excited about this, just due to the sheer amount of these kinds of announcements we’ve been getting. That said, God of War is a pretty cinematic series, especially in its newest Norse-themed iterations. It’s easy to imagine how that might translate well to a show.
On the flip side, God of War is a very effects and action-driven series; half the appeal has always been Kratos chopping up mythical monsters like minotaurs, gorgons, trolls, and skeletons with reckless abandon. It’s hard to imagine a God of War series without the insane action, which will probably be one of the series’ largest challenges should Amazon decide to move forward.
According to Deadline, the show is being created by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, the writing duo that launched The Expanse show and penned the first Iron Man, as well as The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins. It’s expected that Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, and Amazon Studios will co-produce the God of War series should it come to pass.
It’s very early days for God of War on Amazon, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for any developments. In the meantime, God of War: Ragnarok is due out on PlayStation 4 and 5 sometime this year, which means soon we’ll be back to ravaging Norse monsters either way.
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