When news broke back in July that Ryan Hurst tore his bicep on the set of the live-action God of War series, fans immediately began worrying that the search for a new Kratos was going to lead to someone undesirable being cast in the role.
However, before long, Marvel Studios alum Dave Bautista was officially tapped to step into the Ghost of Sparta's sandals.
Still, a vocal chunk of the gaming community held out hope for a different name: Christopher Judge.
Ever since he took over performance capture and voicing the character back in 2016, Judge has been Kratos for millions of fans.
As it turns out, Judge actually gave it a shot. He went in, read for the role, and even started hitting the gym to prep for the physically brutal shoot.
But during that process, the reality of the grind set in. He realized he just didn't have the stomach for the brutal schedule of leading a massive television production at this stage in his life.
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."
Addressing Bautista's casting, who at 57 is surprisingly only five years younger, Judge offered nothing but support.
He made it clear he wants whatever touches the God of War franchise to succeed, though he did offer one piece of friendly advice for the former WWE star and that was to make sure to pack on the muscle in a
"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 replacement 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."