God of War TV Series Reportedly Starting Over

Amazon has been on quite the roll lately with big franchises, delivering a stellar adaptation of the Fallout franchise, a new Batman animated series, and a well-received second season of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. That’s only built up the hype for several of their other upcoming projects, but one of the more anticipated projects is repeatedly back at the starting line. Variety is reporting that the God of War TV series is starting from scratch, as series showrunner and executive producer Rafe Judkins and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus have all departed the project.

According to the report, they had completed several scripts, but Amazon and Sony Pictures Television decided to go in a different creative direction. The hunt for a new showrunner and a new writers’ room now begins, though Santa Monica Studio’s Cory Barlog and Yumi Yang, PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan, and Vertigo’s Roy Lee are all still attached to the project.

A Long Journey

Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television announced the project back in 2022, which is itself based on the 2018 hit video game. While details have been few and far between on the series to this point, there were occasional hints that things were proceeding smoothly. That included an interview with Amazon Studios’ Head of Television Vernon Sanders, who gave a promising update on an earlier version of the script in December of 2022.

“At the center of it all is this story of fathers and sons, and families, set against this giant epic landscape,” Sanders told Collider. “So what Rafe [Judkins] and Mark [Fergus] and Hawk [Ostby] have come up with for the first season, and for the series, I think, is both incredibly true to the source material, and also compelling on its own. If you never played the game, you will fall in love with the show and feel very much invited in. So we think it’s going to be huge.”

In the initial press release, Amazon described their vision for the adaptation and combined with Sanders’ comments, it seems earlier versions were quite close to the original game. “The series follows Kratos, the God of War, who, after exiling himself from his blood-soaked past in ancient Greece, hangs up his weapons forever in the Norse realm of Midgard. When his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak—his wife’s final wish. Kratos soon realizes the journey is an epic quest in disguise, one which will test the bonds between father and son, and force Kratos to battle new Gods and monsters for the fate of the world.”

Sony has brought a number of its bigger franchises to the small and big screen and has more in development. Sony has leaned in on television, with the critically acclaimed The Last of Us leading the way with a much anticipated second season. The comedic action series Twisted Metal earned a second season as well, and Uncharted hit the big screen with quite a bit of success. Up next is Horizon Zero Dawn, which is also being adapted into a series, but it appears we’ll have to wait to see if Kratos can make the move to TV as well.

What do you think of the news God of War fans? You can talk all things gaming with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!