God of War Ragnarok Director on Thor's Design

PlayStation revealed the first real trailer for the upcoming God of War Ragnarok at last week's PlayStation Showcase 2021, and in addition to the trailer, a bunch of new information about the new God of War video game was shared like, for example, the first look at the design of Thor in it. As part of an interview published after the reveal, God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams and creative director Cory Barlog went into detail on the design of the new character

Notably, God of War Ragnarok's depiction of Thor differs fairly significantly from what is arguably the current version of Thor in popular culture that jumps to the forefront of most folks' minds: the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth on screen. The video game's Thor isn't so much sculpted abs and a chiseled jawline so much as he is a big, burly man with a significant belly. For reference, you can check out what Thor looks like in God of War Ragnarok below:

As you might expect, this was very intentional. "Well, I don't know, we just want him to be a big boy, you know. There's Marvel's interpretation of him is one thing. It's interesting. We wanted to, you know, go a little deeper into the mythology itself," Williams told Game Informer when asked about how they landed on the design of Thor.

"They have a presence immediately," Williams added of people in his life that have a similar stature and build to God of War Ragnarok's Thor. "And it's not always because of muscles. They're just like that is a wall of a human being, you know. So this is a wall of a God, you know, and that's why it was very important."

"I think there's something so fantastic in that that not everything needs to be this glistening muscle hulk kind of concept to still be fantastic and powerful and intimidating," Barlog said as part of the same interview.

God of War Ragnarok is currently set to release for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022. As for the God of War franchise from Sony's Santa Monica Studio in general, the latest and greatest title is available for PlayStation 4 and as a backwards-compatible title on the PlayStation 5. It also just so happens to be included in the PlayStation Plus collection. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the God of War franchise right here.

What do you think about the design of Thor in God of War Ragnarok? Are you looking forward to learning more about the new God of War title in the near future? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!

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