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Grab your Leviathan Axe and cue up the music of Bear McCreary, because “Star Trek” and “Battlestar Galactica” veteran writer and showrunner Ronald D. Moore has just been chosen to run the writers room, executive produce, and write for the new Sony TV/Amazon MGM Studios’ Prime Video series “God of War” per Deadline. For those of you who’ve been fans of the video game franchise that bears the same name, let’s clear up a canon question right away: this new series is due to be based on the 2018 reboot version of the game, which takes its cue from Norse mythology as opposed to the original series of games published from 2005-2013, which were based on Greek mythology.
That’s not to say Greek mythology is totally off the table, of course, because the 2018 game still sees the same protagonist/player character of Kratos some 150 years after 2010’s “God of War III,” and this TV version may have a highly similar backstory of battling the Greek gods on a mission of vengeance. All of this material seems very much up Moore’s alley, as the prolific television guru has tackled various elements of Earth mythology in his previous work for “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and “Battlestar Galactica.” That latter series may particularly indicate the direction Moore might take “God of War,” given that “BSG” and “GoW” share similar themes of fathers and sons. In any case, the news is an exciting development coming out of Moore’s recent deal with Sony Pictures Television, the production company with which he developed two other hit series: “Outlander” and “For All Mankind,” both of which have their own spinoff series due to hit screens shortly.
Will God of War be more action or drama-oriented?
As of this moment, it’s not certain where Moore intends to take “God of War” as a series. He’s no stranger to adapting pre-existing sci-fi/fantasy material, given his history with “Trek,” “Battlestar,” and “Outlander,” as well as the anthology “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.” If “God of War” were being developed as a feature, it’d undoubtedly have a large focus on the game’s history of hack-n-slash gameplay. Given that the 2018 “God of War” game is a more emotional and thoughtful story of a father and son (while still being ostensibly an action game with RPG elements), it’s perhaps this confusion of focus that led to the “God of War” series losing its initial creative team of showrunner Rafe Judkins and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus. Moore’s work, by and large, tends to be more thoughtful and character-driven than too focused on big action setpieces, and it’s possible that this changeover signals the series moving in such a direction.
That said, it’s also possible that Sony/Amazon are looking to distinguish this series from another, similarly themed upcoming Netflix series: Michael Bay’s “Barbaric,” which by all accounts sounds like it’s going to be very action-focused. Even if Moore and his team are looking to make their “God of War” with more depth than Bay’s show, it can safely be said that their series will retain some modicum of the game’s hard-hitting battles. Perhaps the switch in focus will bring the show in line with another video game adaptation that’s been lauded for its depth, HBO Max’s “The Last of Us.” Whatever Moore and company end up with, the showrunner is a very good person to bet on when it comes to small-screen success. Like Kratos himself, Moore knows how to plan for the long haul. We’ll see if he does it again when “God of War” hits Prime Video in the near future.