Prime Video’s live-action God of War series has hit a road bump after lead actor Ryan Hurst—who was set to play Kratos—suffered an on-set injury. Hurst’s role will now be recast.
According to Deadline, Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios made the decision to recast Hurst’s role after he tore his bicep while performing a stunt for the video game adaptation in June. The trade goes on to note that production on God of War was paused while Hurst underwent surgery and was in recovery. Although the show is still on hiatus, with Hurst’s recovery time estimated at 4-6 months post-surgery, the powers that be decided to recast the role to keep the production schedule on track, which is expected to restart this fall.
What makes this news surprising is that four episodes of what was planned to be a back-to-back two-season filming of the show had already been completed before Hurst’s injury. Meaning, God of War will have to reshoot its completed episodes with a new actor taking the helm as Kratos. To make matters all the more dour, Deadline notes that Hurst, who voiced Thor in God of War Ragnarök, put on 40 pounds of muscle while shooting to meet the moment of playing PlayStation’s pantheon-killing papa.
Fans of the series got to see what Hurst would’ve looked like alongside Callum Vinson, who plays Kratos’ son, Atreus, back in February, in a still image that certainly looked like it was lifted from the games. Granted, fans weren’t all that jazzed at what they saw, thinking it was an AI-generated image. And given Amazon’s flirtation with AI on numerous occasions, which has led to backlash, concerns that the first look at Vinson and Hurst might’ve been AI-generated or spruced up weren’t out of left field. However, Hurst took to his Instagram responding to the backlash, saying, “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”
If there’s any consolation prize to Hurst’s tragic God of War situation, it’s that he’ll be receiving his flowers for starring in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey as Mentor. At least he’s not too far from the pantheon he was originally cast to destroy.
In other God of War news, players can look forward to Deborah Ann Woll starring in Santa Monica Studios’ next installment in the franchise, God of War: Laufey, as Kratos’ wife battling it out in the underworld when it releases on PlayStation 5. No official release date has been set.
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