Why The God Of War Casting Has Me Worried

Right now, in 2026, we’re living in the boom period that many a gamer has dreamed of for decades: there are plentiful movies and TV shows based on video games being made, and quite a few of them are actually really, really good. It’s to the point now that an outright Double Dragon-level stinkbomb—looking directly at you, Borderlands—feels like an outlier rather than the norm. That’s a good thing overall, but this also means the bar is no longer buried in the floor when it comes to the things that make taking control out of gamers’ hands worthwhile. And now, we’re one step closer to having a God of War TV show, with the announcement that Ryan Hurst will be playing the Ghost of Sparta. Granted, many a fan—myself included—has spent so many years fancasting WWE’s Triple H as Kratos that it’d be a little weird seeing anyone else pick up a Leviathan Axe in live action. But we now know it’ll be Ryan Hurst.

And now I’m a little worried. 

God of War‘s Kratos has one of the most fascinating and unique character arcs in Western media. When this series started in 2005, Kratos was a Spartan soldier with ashen skin, a Scott Ian goatee, and twin blades chained to his arms who spent hours upon hours ripping satyrs apart with his bare hands, yelling at the gods, blaming them for the death of his family, and brooding after threesomes. The first game starts and ends with Kratos deciding to plunge to his death from the top of Mt. Olympus because revenge didn’t bring him peace. The only way that first game could be more nu-metal was if Linkin Park played over the end credits, and believe me, I was on AMV.org enough in the early-to-mid-aughts to know plenty of folks had that exact idea. By the end of Kratos’ third Revenge Tour, his anger had led him to completely decimate the entire Greek pantheon, leaving him immortal and empty. 

Unlike most things that angsty from the early aughts, though, Kratos actually managed to grow up, with 2018’s God of War evolving the character into a thoughtful, pensive father with regrets, who has just barely wrangled his failures as a man into a place where he doesn’t have to lay his multitude of sins onto his son. The Valhalla DLC for the 2023 sequel, God of War: Ragnarok could’ve been an empty roguelike mode trying to keep up with the likes of Hades, and instead, it’s an act of grace and self-reflection unlike anything in gaming, especially when old man Kratos physically confronts his younger, angrier self, and has to summon the power to forgive him and surpass him. 

Those two decades of baggage are a big part of why Amazon’s upcoming God of War show has its work cut out for it, but hey, there were plenty of folks who never knew Kratos before 2018, and still loved the last two games. Good writing can paper over any dubious fealty to the games. But unlike, say, The Last of Us, this series will lose something introducing Kratos to an audience that has never picked up a controller, unless the people in charge craft this version of the story very, very carefully.

And that brings me to Ryan Hurst, who has just been cast as Kratos in Amazon’s adaptation. 

Let me state upfront that this isn’t really going to be any shade on Ryan Hurst. I’ve liked him in a bunch of things. As someone who stuck with Sons of Anarchy way longer than he reasonably should’ve, Hurst’s presence in an episode was always a welcome one, and yeah, I was depressed for days after his character, Opie, got whacked. His performance as Thor in God of War: Ragnarok is incredible; having a nigh-invincible god decide to go on an all-timer alcoholic deathmarch is a hell of a take, and Hurst conveying numbness and nihilism in the same scenes as he has to convey unfathomable power and menace is no small feat. He’s a damn fine actor under the right circumstances. But that right there is part of the issue. Not that he’s been in this particular universe before, but that this is a circumstance we haven’t seen him in. Kratos has particular needs as a character that just….haven’t been there with Hurst. 

Normies being introduced to God of War through the series will find themselves watching the story of a heartbroken father who has to parent for the first time, going on a journey with his son that brings them closer together, and really, folks who watch a hell of a lot of streaming shows have seen this story told several times over. What’s going to make this show stand out? The Norse angle? Vikings is right there. The fantasy elements? It’s going on a streaming platform that already hosts a very expensive Lord of the Rings show. The father-son bonding? Probably the easiest layup, and it’s not even going to be the only show based on a video game that builds its foundation on daddy issues.  

Hurst is a good performer, but there’s a different weight to his presence than the one Kratos possesses in the games. Think about that scene in which Kratos ditches Atreus temporarily so he can go back home and get the Blades of Chaos out of storage. The slowness, the fear, but also, the sense that a switch was flipped, that the walking chainsaw Kratos used to be has just been activated. There’s not just surliness and menace there, but a certain explosive bloodlust, and it’s barely constrained the entire game. That’s a different energy than Hurst has ever brought to the table. Kratos has been a monster for a very long time. That guy who used to let innocent soldiers die screaming if it meant getting a hold of a trinket to open a door, or the one willing to sacrifice virgins to spiked pits without ever looking back? God of War 2018 may reintroduce him as a husband and father in mourning, but as Baldur is quick to remind him later, he’s still that guy. Do we see Hurst embodying that volatility in the extreme? Not really. 

The other elephant in the room is minor, but it’s got to be addressed: Kratos is a dark olive-skinned Greek, and has traditionally been voiced by black men. That’s always introduced a particularly special texture to Kratos’ entire arc, especially as he’s wrestled more with the man he was and is desperate to move beyond. I’ve known a fair share of black men who recognized the depths there in both T.C. Carson’s and Christopher Judge’s performances, immediately clocking the innumerable black fathers who had to abandon the boys they were so they could be better men. Again, these are things Hurst can likely pull off, but there’s so much less depth to be mined there when our hero is a surly white guy audiences have just met, one who never stands out from the people who eventually come to hate and fear the Ghost of Sparta as he rampages through cities. When we, presumably, see the glimpses of Kratos’ Spartan past, the ashes of his murdered family grafted onto him as permanent penance, it’s hard not to think it will mean less watching already pale skin go one or two notches down the pantone chart than if we were starting at the other side of the spectrum.

God of War has a shot at being a very good show, especially with Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald Moore at the helm. But it’s a show that’s already putting itself at a disadvantage by incorporating fewer of the more intangible elements this story can carry with it.  Ryan Hurst is easy casting. A big surly guy with a beard who can certainly be made to look like Kratos. Embodying him, however, demands a hell of a lot more, and I hope they’ve already planned for that.