Since the release of the first game in 2005, god of war The franchise continues to be a staple of the PlayStation brand.Due to the sheer number of games and character endurance, Kratos (originally Terrence C. Carson) is one of the closest characters to Sony’s mascot. Since the franchise’s soft reboot in 2018, interest in the characters and world has skyrocketed as the original game came out decades after Kratos in a new setting. God of War: Ragnarok was a massive commercial and critical success, and on a post-release positive wave, Amazon announced that it would be creating a series based on its latest game.
The soft reboot game, which consists of the last two releases, takes place in the world of Norse mythology. This is one of the reasons why it is a good starting point for adaptation. But the series announcement isn’t the only time the franchise has attempted to move to another medium. Interest in adapting has grown quickly since the first game was released.
original story
Before getting into the content of the original iteration god of war It’s important to establish what the franchise was before the soft reboot, as the movie should have been. Hmm, Kratos (currently Christopher Judge in the reboot) as the child’s grumpy dad metersid90s (Sunny Surjik).
The original game takes place when Kratos was one of the strongest and most successful Spartan warriors of ancient Greece. He made a pact with Ares, the god of war, conan the barbarian Mantra: Crush your enemies, see them driven before your eyes, and hear their lamentations. And he was the best at it.
During various raids, attacks and battles, Kratos is tricked by Ares into killing his wife and infant daughter. Since that day, he’s been cursed and burdened with being permanently covered in the ashes of his fallen family.After being captured by the gods, Kratos escapes, 3 games, 2 portable his spin-offs , and spent one console prequel on revenge on the Greek Pantheon. After successfully killing Ares, his father Zeus, and nearly destroying all of Greece, Kratos sought to end his life. However, as we can see in the reboot, his divinity prevented his death as he was forced to travel to other mythologies.
In the first iteration, Kratos was usually dismissed as a flat character who did little more than scream and get angry. Even when stories were mostly an afterthought and taken on, Kratos always had the makings of a traditional tragic hero. It’s written in a way that makes you feel like you’re an important figure in Greek mythology.It’s easy to see how a movie studio would want to adapt it. It has the makings of an epic action tragedy.
take one
As previously stated, the film adaptation was in the books as early as the first game’s release. David Jaffe, expressed interest in an adaptation, but was pessimistic about the quality he would get from the film. However, Sony has always wanted vertical integration and synergies between its games and movies divisions. unknown movies and series spiderman A game developed by Insomniac.This movie Charles Roven at the recently successful Mosaic Group of batman begins Ready to move to other franchises. The film itself will be produced by Sony Pictures and distributed by Universal. It wasn’t directed when it was in active development around 2005, but a script draft was completed. road to ruin Writer David Self.
after the failure of X-Men: Last Stand, Brett Ratner I contracted directly and got an offer Daniel Craig It stars based on the latest draft from Self, but according to Jaffe in the documentary bundled with God of War: Origins Collection For PlayStation 3, Craig declined the role. This makes sense, considering he’s a very odd choice for Kratos. It would be like if cast as The Destroyer.
As for Ratner, he left the project within a year and tower robbery instead. It’s good that he avoided being placed in yet another position of power, hurting this franchise following allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, as this iteration completely failed him circa 2010. , a new version has entered active development.
second chance
In 2012, several years after the conclusion of the first trilogy of games, the writer Patrick Melton When Marcus Dunstan was hired to write a new iteration of god of war Films after successful writing So IV Use 3DHaving written four sequels in a row in the beloved franchise, pacific rim It showed more promise than the first attempt.Charles Roven was still trying to get this movie out there, but like him unknown The movie, it basically sat in development hell for ten years.
This iteration is less known than the last, as it has never been officially starred or directed.There was a period after the release of Pacific rim: Uprising where did you look like Stephen S. DeKnight I instructed, but nothing came true. It’s worth noting that this iteration took place after the release of her. battle of the titans remake. The film was a modest success. They also wanted Ares to be a villain with more presence. This makes sense considering he’s barely part of the first game, aside from a few flashbacks and boss fights before he dies. It was predicted to cost $150 million. By today’s standards, this sounds pretty much in line with most blockbuster movies. did. Along with that, this version also disappeared.
Kratos Achilles heel
If you read between the lines of all these versions and see what the industry was doing at the time, it’s easy to see how this movie never got made. Gladiator When 300 It showed that the old Hollywood-style sword-and-sandals epic can still succeed in modern times.hire a writer for saw It makes sense to consider god of war The game is famous for its gore and violence. But what people often forget is that those movies ended up being the exception to the rule.
Other attempts at this kind of film usually fell through and went under fire, especially by the 2010s.sure first battle of the titans was moderately successful, but its sequel was less so and plans for a third film were scrapped.The list of failures and moderate hits lasts much longer than the big successes. Ben Hur sequel to the remake 300, dwayne johnson Hercules, immortal, prince of persia, conan the barbarian Remakes, all of them underwhelm critically, commercially, or both. And this just scratches the surface. High price points and declining audience interest were the true cause of death for this film.
A third charm?
Adapting this series as a TV show would not only make a lot more sense than a movie because the narrative structure of the game is done in chapters, but using the new game as a starting point would also be the right choice. Old games were great and had much better stories and character writing than most people believe, but that only makes sense as a video game. It’s “Kratos walks into new areas and literally destroys everything,” and it’s a lot more fun to play than to watch.
But new games? They’re much more grounded, sacrificing some of the larger action for a more character-focused storyline, where a tragedy-stricken father makes more of a presence for his son. It is a story about showing and trying to change yourself so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past. It is a story about breaking the chain of past mistakes. It’s about getting better, a phrase that repeats itself over and over again, both literally and thematically. Kratos supports his cast with plenty of characters who bounce off instead of brutally killing them. It has the makings of a great TV show, and it’s exciting to see what the folks at Amazon cook for it.
