Amazon making a live-action God of War show

Amazon Prime Video will be the home of an all-new live-action TV series based on the popular God of War video game series

Amazon has announced that it will be producing a new live-action TV series based on the popular God of War video game series exclusively for Amazon Prime Video.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the new series will be based primarily on 2018’s God of War for the PlayStation 4, which was released to near-universal acclaim and sold over 20 million units.

Rafe Judkins, who created Amazon’s The Wheel of Time adaptation in 2021, will serve as the show’s showrunner, and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who co-wrote 2008’s Iron Man film and created The Expanse, will be both writing and executive producing the production.

Amazon Studios head Vernon Sanders has said that God of War is a “compelling, character-driven franchise,” and that he expects the series will captivate viewers as much as the games did for players.

“We are honored to share in the adventure of exploring the God of War mythology in such a momentous way with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, and Santa Monica Studio”.

2018’s God of War and its sequel Ragnarok have been praised for their touching storytelling. Picture: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Hollywood Reporter states that the series has been in development since March, and will follow the story of 2018’s Norse mythology-inspired God of War game, rather than the series’ earlier titles, which focused primarily on Greek mythology. The show’s description is as follows:

“When his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak — his wife’s final wish. Kratos soon realizes the journey is an epic quest in disguise, one which will test the bonds between father and son, and force Kratos to battle new gods and monsters for the fate of the world.”

It joins a host of recent live-action adaptations of video games spread across a number of different streaming services. Earlier this year saw the release of a live-action Halo series on Paramount+, and HBO will soon air a series based on The Last of Us. A series based on Twisted Metal is reportedly in production for NBC’s Peacock, while a Horizon: Zero Dawn series is also in production for Netflix.

God of War has many tense and touching moments between Kratos and his son Atreus. Picture: Sony Interactive Entertainment

A fan-favourite horror game is also getting a movie adaptation, with the extremely popular Bioshock series getting adapted by Netflix. The movie will be directed by Francis Lawrence, who also directed I Am Legend and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and written by Michael Green, who worked on Blade Runner 2049 and American Gods.

A live-action Pac-Man movie is also in the works, as a joint venture between Pac-Man publisher Bandai Namco and Wayfarer Studios. It will reportedly feature an original plot, presumably because a yellow disc eating pellets in a maze is not the most compelling thing to watch for two hours.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.