What happened to the "God of War" movie?

With the "God of War" TV show in the works, let's take a look at the many failed attempts to bring Kratos to film.

The God of War series has been a staple of the PlayStation brand since the release of the first game in 2005. With the sheer amount of play and the character's staying power, Kratos (originally voiced by Terrence C. Carson) is one of the closest things to a mascot Sony has ever had. Since the franchise got a soft reboot in 2018 after the original game in a new setting decades after Kratos, interest in the characters and world has skyrocketed. The latest release, God of War: Ragnarok, was a huge commercial and critical success, and amidst the wave of post-launch positivity, Amazon announced that they would be making a series based on the latest game.

The soft reboot game, which consists of the last two versions, takes place in the world of Norse mythology, which is one of the reasons it was a good starting point for the adaptation. But this launch isn't the only time the series has attempted to pivot to another medium. Interest in an adaptation arose almost immediately after the release of the first game.

The Original Story

before entering the original iteration What a God of War movie should be, it's important to nail down the franchise before a soft reboot. The first game is nearly 20 years old, and while it may seem like old news to longtime fans, for those who only thought of Kratos (now played by Christopher Judge in the reboot) as a gruff daddy, it's time to revisit. Warm up the kid from the mid-90s (Sunny Suljic).

The original game followed Kratos as one of the most powerful and successful Spartans of ancient Greece at the time. After making a deal with Ares, the god of war, he followed Conan the Barbarian's mantra: Crush your enemies, watch them be driven before you, and hear their women's lament. He is the best at it.

During his various raids, attacks, and battles, Kratos was tricked by Ares into killing his wife and young daughter. From that day on, he was cursed and burdened, forever covered in the ashes of his dead family members. Imprisoned by the gods, Kratos escapes with 3 games, 2 portable spinoffs and a console prequel His revenge on the Greek Pantheon. After successfully killing Ares, his father Zeus and nearly destroying all of Greece, Kratos attempted to take his own life. But, as we learned in the reboot, his divinity saved him from death as he was forced to travel to other myths.

In the original iterations, Kratos was generally considered a flat character who did nothing but scream and get angry. But there's a lot of pathos to him, and even in the early 2000s, when video game narratives were largely afterthoughts and underwriting, Kratos always had the air of a traditional tragic protagonist. He fits perfectly into the world of Greek mythology, and was written to feel as if he could have been a prominent figure in actual Greek mythology. It's easy to see how the studio wants to adapt it, which has the makings of an epic action tragedy.

Take One

As previously mentioned, the film adaptation was in the books as early as the first game's release. David Jaffe, the director of the first game, expressed interest in an adaptation, but was pessimistic about the film's quality. he also doubts The movie would even come out, and it turns out he was right. But Sony has been hoping for some vertical integration and synergy between its gaming and movie divisions, something that has proven successful in recent years with last year's Uncharted movie and Insomniac-developed Spider-Man franchise. The film will be produced by Mosaic Group's Charles Roven, fresh off the success of Batman Begins and ready to take on other franchises. The film itself will be produced by Sony Pictures and distributed by Universal. When it was in active development around 2005, no director was named, but it did have a draft script, written by Road to Perdition screenwriter David Self.

After the failure of X-Men: The Last Stand, Brett Ratner signed on to direct and approached Daniel Craig to star in Self's latest script, but according to Jaffe in the documentary tied to God of War Said in: Origins Collection on PlayStation 3, Craig turned down the role. Which makes sense, since he's an odd choice for Kratos. Craig is a great actor, not that he can't be Good Kratos, but it would be even better if you cast him as Drax the Destroyer. This is not appropriate.

As for Ratner, he left the project within a year to produce The Tower Heist instead. It's a good thing he hasn't tarnished the franchise and been placed in another position of power following allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. Once this iteration completely failed around 2010, a new version entered active development.

The Second Chance

In 2012, a few years after the original trilogy of games ended, writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan were hired to write a new version of God of War after successfully writing Saw IV in 3D. "Movie. Working on four sequels in a row to a beloved series and contributing to the draft of Pacific Rim is more promising than the first attempt. Charles Roven is still trying to push the film forward, but like his Uncharted movie, it's basically been in development hell for a decade.

This iteration is less well-known than the previous one, as no star or director was officially on board. after a while The release of Pacific Rim: Uprising looked like Steven S. DeKnight would direct, but that didn't happen. It's worth noting that this iteration follows the release of the remake of Clash of the Titans. That film was moderately successful, and this version aims to echo that film, which takes a lot of the grand scope but makes it more grounded and character-focused. The team wanted audiences to really get to know Kratos as a person before being tricked into his wretched reality. They also want Ares to be a more realistic villain, which makes sense since he's barely seen in the first game, save for a few flashbacks and a boss fight before he dies. The downside of the script is that it's estimated to cost around $150 million to produce. By today's standards, it does sound in sync with most blockbusters. But a decade ago, that was uncommon and a major risk for franchises that hadn't been proven on-screen. Just like that, this version also disappeared.

Kratos’ Achilles Heel

Read between the lines of all these editions, and see With industry trends at the time, it's easy to see how the movie never got made. In the early 2000s, films like Gladiator and 300 showed that old Hollywood-style sword-and-sandal epics could succeed in the modern age. It even made sense to hire the writer for Saw, considering the God of War games are known for their gore and violence. But, what people often forget is that these movies end up being the exception to the rule.

Other attempts at this type of film have generally failed, especially in the 2010s. Sure, the first Clash of the Titans was moderately successful, but its sequel wasn't quite as successful, as plans for a third film were scrapped. The list of failures and moderate successes is much longer than great successes. Ben-Hur remakes, 300 sequels, Dwayne Johnson's Hercules, Immortals, Prince of Persia, Conan the Barbarian remakes, all of them critically, commercially, or both. And that's just the surface. The high selling price and declining audience interest are the real reasons for this movie's death.

Third Time’s the Charm?

Adapting the series to television was more than just The movie is done in chapters due to the game's narrative structure, but it's also the right choice to start with a newer game. The old games were great, their stories and character writing were much better than most people give credit to, but it almost only makes sense as a video game. The structure of these games is basically "Kratos walks into a new area and literally destroys everything" and is a lot more fun to play than to watch.

But new game? Those are more grounded and sacrifice some of the larger-scale action for a more character-focused story. It's the story of a father mocked by tragedy trying to change himself so that he can focus more on his son and not repeat the mistakes of his past. This is a story about breaking the chains of past mistakes. It's about getting better, a phrase that comes up time and time again, both literally and thematically. Kratos also has more of a role in his supporting cast, from which he can bounce off rather than brutally kill. It has what it takes to make great TV, and it's exciting to watch Whatever the folks at Amazon do for it.