The first image out of Amazon’s live-action version of God of War barely saw a day’s worth of online life before David Jaffe spoke out. While online, David Jaffe, the creator of the God of War franchise, certainly didn’t remain silent. He spoke out in support of the cast. He spoke out in support of the crew. And while he had kind words to say about the cast and crew, he had nothing but negative words to say about the image itself.
God of War live-action first look sparks backlash
According to Jaffe, the image is a PR disaster that does not capture the mythic feel of Kratos. The image shows Ryan Hurst playing the role of Kratos and Callum Vinson playing the role of Atreus, and they are shown in a forest, reminiscent of the scene in the game God of War, released in 2018, where the characters of Kratos and Atreus are shown hunting.
“Kratos in this pose with this expression—not the guy’s face, but this expression—he just looks stupid. If you’re going to reveal, to most people, a brand new character that you hope is going to carry your series for the first time, and they’ve never really seen this before, and this is the way you introduce them?” Jaffe zeroed in on the image of Kratos and said that the character looked ridiculous, not menacing.
His discontent, however, did not end here. The style of Vinson, who portrayed the character of Atreus, was criticized by Jaffe, who claimed that the young character of Atreus looked too refined and appeared to be confused. The level of detail in the background, however, was more irritating to Jaffe. The rock formation, he claimed, did not look real, more like a prop from a model train set, because of poor lighting and the placement of the moss.
The picture, however, was also speculated to be AI-generated, while some speculated that it might have been an early leak. Jaffe, however, did not make any such claims, focusing more on what he saw.
Jaffe, however, seems to remain optimistic about the series, given that the new showrunner, Ronald D. Moore, who is known for Battlestar Galactica and Outlander, seems to have received great praise from Jaffe, who claims that he is a very talented person, while Hurst, too, seems to have been saved from criticism, as Jaffe seems to believe that performance is more important than perfection.
The cast of the new series seems to have been revealed, with Hurst set to play Kratos; Vinson set to play Atreus; Mandy Patinkin set to play Odin, while Ólafur Darri Ólafsson set to play Thor; and Alastair Duncan set to play Mimir.
Hurst, however, responded to the fans on Instagram, stating that they should not believe everything they read online.
