A few weeks ago, Deadline reported that Amazon's God of War TV show had suffered a major setback due to actor Ryan Hurst 's injury. Hurst tore his bicep during an on-set stunt, which required surgery and a long recovery that threatened the first season's production, leading the production team to replace him with another actor.
Now, Deadline has revealed that none other than Dave Bautista is in talks to join the TV series as the protagonist, Kratos. The 57-year-old should have no problem bulking up again for the role, given his long career as a professional wrestler ; moreover, he recently finished shooting in the upcoming Highlander action movie, which already required him to stay in peak physical form (he plays The Kurgan , which featured Clancy Brown in the original movie).
Bautista is also a much more famous actor than Hurst , owing largely to his portrayal of Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though he was also in Dune as Rabban and in many other movies, such as Army of the Dead, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and The Wrecking Crew. However, Bautista hasn't often been featured on TV shows, with the notable exception of the second season of the series See.
Funnily enough, Bautista has long campaigned to be a star in a movie adaptation of the other GoW , Gears of War , which he is a big fan of. He was even added to Gears 5 as a playable skin in the game's multiplayer mode. However, he arguably works even better as Kratos.
By the way, Kratos might not be the only recast in the God of War TV show. Amazon is reportedly looking for replacements for the actors playing Atreus and Thrud . However, that was planned from the beginning due to the time jump between the games God of War and God of War Ragnarök, in which the young actors who play these characters in the first season (Callum Vinson and Island Austin) would have to appear much older than they would be at the time of shooting.
About the author : With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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