Entertainment

New ‘God of War’ Star Officially Shows Off Stunning Kratos Transformation

Nairavoice · Nov 6, 2026 · 5 min read

The God of War TV show has been in the works at Prime Video for years now, but the show is finally getting off the ground after being stuck in development limbo for longer than most fans thought possible. Some fans were sad to learn that the God of War show coming soon to Prime Video will not adapt any of the original God of War games, which show Kratos overthrowing the Greek pantheon after the death of his wife and daughter. The show will start at the rebranded God of War series, which launched in 2018 courtesy of Santa Monica. In the new God of War series, Kratos has lived for thousands of years and now resides peacefully in Midgard under Norse gods like Odin and Thor — peacefully, until they learn about his past and set their sights on making sure they’re not next.

There have been two beloved God of War games under Santa Monica so far, and the third, God of War Laufey, is officially on the way next May. Originally tapped to star in the live-action role of Kratos in Prime Video’s God of War show was Ryan Hurst, who was dropped from the series after suffering an injury that would have halted production for nearly a year. He was later replaced by Dave Bautista, who had been a fan-favorite casting of passionate God of War fans for years. Now several months removed from Bautista’s announcement as the live-action Kratos, the former WWE star took to his personal Instagram to show off his stunning transformation as he prepares to play the God-killer, revealing that he’s gained a whopping 20 pounds of muscle for the role.

Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life
looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in
return.

You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and
somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right
thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.

This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat,
fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends.
You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost
everything you touch is older than your entire family line.
The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives
every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight.
You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.

You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where
you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is
finding out what is over there.

One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who
each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together.
You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off
somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea.
The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land
harder because of that rather than in spite of it.
You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of
it.

You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The
Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the
people are where it all gets complicated.

Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is
a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept.
You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the
Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer.
The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a
rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people.
You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story
got told wrong.

You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and
you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as
everybody kept telling you.

Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners,
which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse.
You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for
something nobody thought to test for.
The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud
every time a prophecy tries to get in the way.
Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you
difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.

Here’s Who Else Stars in Prime Video’s ‘God of War’

Image via Inaugural Entertainment
Image via Hulu
Image via 20th Century Studios
Image via Sky One
Image via ABC

Image via Inaugural Entertainment

Image via Hulu

Image via 20th Century Studios

Image via Sky One

Image via ABC

Image via Inaugural Entertainment
Image via Hulu
Image via 20th Century Studios
Image via Sky One
Image via ABC

Image via Inaugural Entertainment

Image via Hulu

Image via 20th Century Studios

Image via Sky One

Image via ABC

Starring opposite Bautista as a young Atreus in the first season of Prime Video’s God of War series is Callum Vinson, though the role is expected to be recast with an older actor in Season 2. Ed Skrein, famed for his role as Francis in Deadpool, will star as Baldur, the primary antagonist of the first God of War game. Additional cast members include Teresa Palmer as Sif, Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Sonya Walger as Freya, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Island Austin as Thrud, Max Parker as Heimdall, and Alastair Duncan as Mimir. The show is being written and created by Ronald D. Moore, whose recent credits include For All Mankind and Outlander.