Ever since he stepped into Kratos' boots for the 2018 reboot, Christopher Judge is the Ghost of Sparta for an entire generation of gamers.
So it was no surprise fans rallied for him when the Amazon show needed a new lead following an unfortunate injury to Ryan Hurst.
As it turns out, Judge actually gave it a real shot. He went through the audition process with Amazon and was even grinding in the gym to prepare for the brutal physical demands of the shoot.
And that's when reality hit him.
Looking at the grueling, months-long grind required to headline a massive fantasy series, Judge realized that at his current age he couldn't and had no desire to take that kind of punishment anymore. At this point in his career, signing up for that level of physical wear and tear was a dealbreaker for him.
Speaking at FanExpo Canada [via Collider], Judge revealed, "We had talked, and I thought, 'God, what a great legacy to leave for my grandson.' So I started working out. I got bigger. Then, just the reality of it... because I did read! I did read for it. It was so hard for me to memorize my lines, which I never had a problem with. And that was my mind and body starting to tell me, 'You don't want to do this.' I was one of the leads of Stargate at 33 to 44 and then stopped. Now, at 62, to be the lead, I just have no desire to live that way again."
Addressing Bautista's casting, who at 57 is surprisingly only five years younger, Judge offered nothing but support.
He made it clear he wants whatever touches the God of War franchise to succeed, though he did offer one piece of friendly advice for the former WWE star and that was to make sure to pack on the muscle in a
"First of all, I want anything God of War to be great...With Ryan, I thought that was absolutely the right choice. He's played all the games. He's a gamer and new father; like, who better? Then when he got hurt, it was like, are they going to take time to read with and call people back? So when I heard the name of Bautista, I thought, 'Didn't he just lose like 100 pounds?' So I hope he's going to be great. I think he's going to be great. I just hope it doesn't cause any health issues to put back on all that weight."
Prime Video has given God of War a two-season order, with both seasons (20 episodes total) scheduled to film back-to-back. That made finding a replacement for Hurst all the more urgent.
The production is currently paused but is expected to resume in mid-October.
Amazon Prime Video first announced plans for the God of War TV series back in December 2022.
In October 2024, Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, For All Mankind)stepped in as the new showrunner, taking over after the original creative team, Rafe Judkins (The Wheel of Time) and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, left the project due to creative differences.
The upcoming series will follow the modern God of War games that focus on Norse mythology, as opposed to the original trilogy of PlayStation games that featured a more one-dimensional Kratos.
On the tone of the show, Moore previously stated, "The tone of the show is trying to emulate the tone of the game, which is this epic journey- this heartfelt journey of these two men setting out to honor the memory of Kratos' wife and Atreus' mother. So it has this emotional heart but there's this sense of history of who Kratos is and this mystery of his past and what he represents and the emotions that he's going through."