Back in mid-July, it was revealed that actor Ryan Hurst (50) had suffered a torn bicep while filming the upcoming live-action God of War TV series and that the role of Kratos would be recast.
With the production on pause, the race was on to find a replacement, and it was quickly revealed that Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) would be taking over for Hurst.
However, there were a large number of video game fans who clamored for the current voice actor of Kratos, Christopher Judge, who officially replaced TC Carson as the voice and motion-capture actor for Kratos in June 2016, to be cast in the role.
Well, it turns out that Judge did, in fact, read for the role and actually started working out in preparation...but that's when he realized he was too old and had no actual desire to lead a TV series again.
Speaking at FanExpo Canada [via Collider], Judge revealed, "We had talked, and I thought, 'God, what a great legacy to leave for my grandson.' So I started working out. I got bigger. Then, just the reality of it... because I did read! I did read for it. It was so hard for me to memorize my lines, which I never had a problem with. And that was my mind and body starting to tell me, 'You don't want to do this.' I was one of the leads of Stargate at 33 to 44 and then stopped. Now, at 62, to be the lead, I just have no desire to live that way again."
On Bautista's casting (who is only 5 years younger at 57), Judge says he supports him in the role as he wants anything that has to do with God of War to be good, however, he just hopes that the former WWE superstar bulks up in a healthy way.
"First of all, I want anything God of War to be great...With Ryan, I thought that was absolutely the right choice. He's played all the games. He's a gamer and new father; like, who better? Then when he got hurt, it was like, are they going to take time to read with and call people back? So when I heard the name of Bautista, I thought, 'Didn't he just lose like 100 pounds?' So I hope he's going to be great. I think he's going to be great. I just hope it doesn't cause any health issues to put back on all that weight."
Prime Video has given God of War a two-season order, with both seasons (20 episodes total) scheduled to film back-to-back. That made finding a repalcemetn for Hurst all the more urgent.
The production is currently paused but is expected to resume in mid-October.
Amazon Prime Video first announced plans for the God of War TV series back in December 2022.
In October 2024, Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, For All Mankind)stepped in as the new showrunner, taking over after the original creative team, Rafe Judkins (The Wheel of Time) and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, left the project due to creative differences.
The upcoming series will follow the modern God of War games that focus on Norse mythology, as opposed to the original trilogy of PlayStation games that featured a more one-dimensional Kratos.
On the tone of the show, Moore previously stated, "The tone of the show is trying to emulate the tone of the game, which is this epic journey- this heartfelt journey of these two men setting out to honor the memory of Kratos' wife and Atreus' mother. So it has this emotional heart but there's this sense of history of who Kratos is and this mystery of his past and what he represents and the emotions that he's going through."