The God of War TV Show’s Shift In Leadership

  In 2022, Sony Pictures TV and MGM Amazon Studios announced a TV show set in the world of the God of War video game series. The video game series has received an abundance of praise in the past due to its cinematic storytelling. The plot of the show was not planned to be the same as any of the games’ plots, and will instead tell its own plot that builds on the storylines of the games by taking the audience’s understandings of the characters and telling a whole new story. 

According to Ryan Northrup, a senior staff writer at Screenrant, Amazon was confident in this show; so confident, in fact, that Amazon ordered two seasons before filming of the first season had even started (Northrup), which would mean that Amazon truthfully believes that the show will be a success and that fans will love it. More recently, however, Samuel, a writer at Spieltimes, has reported that three executive producers left the cast due to “creative differences” (Samuel): Hawk Ostby, Mark Fergus, and Rafe Judkins, the latter also being the original showrunner. The now gone executive producers wrote many scripts for the show, and the scripts were highly praised by Sony (Rice). These scripts, however, were discarded soon after due to the rest of the studio wanting to go in “a different creative direction” (Rice). From the information given, it is not preposterous to assume that Otsby, Fergus, and Judkins left because of their hard work being thrown away.

The project is now focusing on bringing in new writers, replacing Rafe Judkins with Ronald D. Moore as the new showrunner, who has stated in an interview with Katee Sackhoff on The Sackhoff Show Podcast that he is putting hard work into writing, even though he severely struggles at playing the games. He states, “I’m not a gamer, so it’s even more like, ‘Okay, I’ve never done this before.’” While this may sound alarming to some fans, he is incredibly experienced in the world of film. He has written 90 episodes of Star Trek and helped to develop Outlander. Fans of the series are granted more assurance because Cory Barlog, who directed the original God of War games, is executive producer. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the video game series, there are currently seven games in the God of War franchise, with the first game launching in 2005 on the Playstation 2 console. This game received praise from critics in Gamespot, IGN, Eurogamer, and more (Fandom). God of War (2005) introduced Kratos, who is a formerly successful Spartan warrior and will continue to be the central character for the rest of the series. Before the plot summary of God of War (2005) starts, it is important to note that this is chronologically the third game in the series, as some prequels come out later. We find out that Kratos became a vicious captain who led his men to win multiple battles, but to eventually be defeated by his arch nemesis, a barbarian king named Alrik. In an attempt to fight defeat, he calls upon the god of war, Ares, to help him win the fight at the cost of Kratos becoming Ares’ Loyal servant. As Ares’ loyal servant, Kratos follows his command in attacking a village that worships Athena, but Ares had brought Kratos’ wife and daughter to the town. Kratos unknowingly killed his own wife and daughter because of Ares. This caused Kratos to swear vengeance against Ares, and the rest of the game follows Kratos in his adventure to seek retribution.

The TV show originally planned to follow Kratos in a journey to fulfill his wife’s dying wish: that her ashes be spread from the tallest peak, partaking on this journey with his son, only to eventually realize that it is an odyssey in disguise. Now that leadership in the project has switched and the scripts have been discarded, there is no real promise as to what the story will be. It may follow the original plan or the new team may take the show in another direction, but either way, fans hope that the switch does not have a negative impact on the series.

Contributors to God of War Wiki. “God of War (2005).” God of War Wiki, Fandom, Inc., godofwar.fandom.com/wiki/God_of_War_(2005) . Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

D’Angelo, William. “God of War TV Series Has Reportedly Been Rebooted.” VGChartz, 2 Jan. 2025, www.vgchartz.com/article/462814/god-of-war-tv-series-has-reportedly-been-rebooted/ .

Rice, Lynette. “‘God of War’: Sony and Amazon Starting over on Series after Departure of EPS Rafe Judkins, Hawk Ostby & Mark Fergus.” Deadline, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2024, deadline.com/2024/10/god-of-war-sony-executive-producers-depart-new-writers-joining-1236118075/ .

Samuel. “God of War TV Series Undergoes Major Changes: Back to Square One?” Spiel Times, 24 Oct. 2024, www.spieltimes.io/news/god-of-war-tv-series-undergoes-major-changes-back-to-square-one/ .