So, What’s Up with Amazon’s God of War?

3 min readYou ever play God of War? You should. It’s a series of badass video games where you play as a badass bald guy named Kratos who fights monsters and deities. Like a badass. And these badass games might soon be your next streaming TV obsession, with Amazon Prime Video and Sony both working on God of War for Prime Video. But if this sounds like something we’ve talked about before, you’re right. We have. But some big changes have happened since we did.You’ll recall in January when Prime Video announced God of War as a new series, with Sons of Anarchy actor Ryan Hurst in the lead role of Kratos. But during filming in Vancouver in June 2026, Hurst suffered a serious biceps injury that required substantial recovery time—long enough to exceed the show’s allotted schedule.Later in July, Deadline reported on the situation, adding that production was paused and the decision made to recast Kratos with a new actor. (Four episodes were “fully completed” before the injury, per Deadline.) After a few weeks of outlets reporting on actor Dave Bautista being “in talks” to replace Hurst, Variety officially reported on August 20 that the Guardians of the Galaxy star was cast as the new Kratos.Although Bautista had been a popular “fancast” for Kratos since his days as a WWE champion, his involvement came at an interesting time in the actor’s career. In 2024, the star had intentionally begun slimming down from his brawny physique, telling journalist and pro wrestling content creator Chris Van Vliet that he got “uncomfortably big” for his role in the 2023 thriller A Knock at the Cabin.“And then I noticed, the more I trimmed down, the better I felt,” Bautista said. “And I also noticed the more I trimmed down, the better I looked on camera, the better I looked next to other actors ... Because people have seen me so much bigger over the years, they think I'm like anorexic, but I'm just a large human being.”He joked that his imposing presence made him look like a gorilla, which was “distracting.”But then, God of War happened, and it’s happened fast. On September 3, the fifty-seven-year-old Bautista shared on Instagram his current physique. Though Bautista did not explicitly say he was bulking up again God of War, he did allude to it as a goal. He wrote in the caption: “3rd week in to weight training again. 2 more months to get to where I need to be. Like ridin a bike! LFG!💪🏽”Deadline reported in July that the series targeted “mid-October” to resume shooting.That’s not the only big change made to God of War, though it appears to have little to do with Hurst’s injury. On August 1, MP1st reported that two important characters, Kratos’ son Atreus and Thor’s daughter Thrud, will both be recast in the second season, which is shooting back-to-back with season 1.This is apparently a creative decision, as child actors Callum Vinson (as Atreus) and Island Austin (Thrud) will not be old enough to play teenage versions of their roles. Season 1 is expected to adapt 2018’s God of War, while season 2 will follow the 2022 sequel God of War: Ragnarok that takes place three years later.As cool as it will be to see Bautista swing around a berserker’s axe, it’s still a terrible situation that has got to sting for Ryan Hurst. He is already known to the game’s fanbase, having played Thor in God of War: Ragnarok. But Bautista is a star with Marvel clout, and he has long been a popular choice to play Kratos in the first place. In The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, released in 2022, a character mentions to Bautista’s Drax that he looks like Kratos.So, will God of War be the next great video game TV show? It won’t be the only one in the mix, with upcoming shows like Baldur’s Gate and continuing seasons of Fallout, The Last of Us, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners gunning for the throne. But maybe Dave Bautista will have the might—and the muscle—to make God of War really huge.