Amazon's God of War Timeline Could Skip A Crucial Detail

From basically the early days of the series (back when our main character was a perpetually enraged avatar of vengeance), God of War is a franchise that has been ripe for an adaptation. When Kratos took a detour into the Norse pantheon with 2018’s critically acclaimed God of War 4, those conversations only grew in intensity, especially considering one of the game’s selling points was a one-take visual gimmick that was praised precisely for how “cinematic” it was. Now, as if the prayers of hundreds of fans and Sony executives have been answered, Amazon is currently in production for a live-action God of War adaptation.

The recently released first look at the series (see above) doesn’t offer much that wasn’t expected, simply an image of Kratos and his son Atreus hunting in a snow-smothered landscape. However, the image does give us some insight into how Amazon is approaching the overarching saga, and it already indicates that the adaptation is making a choice that directly affects the narrative impact of Kratos’ adventures in ancient Scandinavia.

Aside from just being an exceptional action RPG, 2018’s God of War is also a thoughtful combination of a reboot and direct continuation of the original GoW trilogy, which sees former Spartan warrior Kratos wage war on the Greek pantheon as revenge for their continued manipulation of his anger for their own machinations. Highly beloved for their brutal hack-and-slash combat (which became a widely imitated industry standard for a while), they might appear a little shallow in terms of character depth, but their initial introduction of Kratos is crucial for everything that comes afterwards. In the original trilogy, he’s portrayed as a vengeful force-of-nature propelled forward along his quest by sheer spite and fury – a little one-dimensional for sure, but that depiction resonated with players and made him one of the most recognizable video game characters of all-time.

When fans were reunited with Kratos eight years after he finally exacted his brutal revenge on the Greek Gods, they were shocked to discover he was now a stern, emotionally unavailable father to his son Atreus, and alongside overcoming the obstacles thrown his way by the Norse Gods, he also had to overcome his own unresolved anger issues and trauma to become a better father. GoW 2018 takes a notorious edgelord character and finally forces him into maturity, allowing him the space to break the cycle of familial violence he was so entrenched in during the original trilogy, but the emotional weight of that transformation works specifically because players spent so much time with the original depiction of Kratos.

While it’s entirely possible for the adaptation to lean on flashbacks to slowly reveal Kratos’ Grecian backstory, not starting with the original trilogy is a mistake, solely because our emotional engagement with his arc stems from players themselves encouraging his journey of revenge in the first place. The narrative relationship between God of War 2018 and the original games is one of the best examples of the unique, metatextual relationship in video games between narrative and player involvement — you can’t help but empathize with his justified rage and understand his desire for revenge, only for the reboot to illuminate the ways that bloodlust has stunted him as a man.

There’s always a strong possibility Amazon’s adaptation could overcome the change and still deliver something emotionally resonant and satisfying for long-term fans, but without being introduced to Kratos by seeing the excesses of his rage up-close and personal, it might be hard for newcomers to appreciate the sheer gravity of how far the character has come.