Last month, we told you a former WWE Superstar was dropping none-too-subtle hints about landing the lead role in Amazon’s God of War series. Turns out we had the right idea and the wrong wrestler.
Dave Bautista is in talks to play Kratos in Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television’s live-action adaptation, according to Deadline. The report was quickly corroborated by 411Mania, GameInformer, and TVLine. Nothing is signed yet, but if it happens, it’s a significant get for a franchise built around one of gaming’s most physically imposing characters.
Why the Role Is Open
Amazon had already cast Ryan Hurst, known for Sons of Anarchy and Remember the Titans, as Kratos. But Hurst tore his bicep performing a stunt in late June, four months into a planned ten-episode shoot. The injury required surgery and a long recovery, and after a couple of weeks with production paused, Amazon MGM and Sony TV made the call to recast rather than wait. Prep on the new lead is expected to start mid-August, with production resuming in Vancouver in mid-October.
Enter Bautista (Not the Wrestler We Guessed)
Back on July 18, Braun Strowman posted a photo of himself in full Kratos cosplay, red markings and all, followed by a photo of an Amazon Studios visitor pass with his name on it. It read like a guy angling for the job.
We covered it here as exactly the kind of coincidence that gets a fanbase talking. Nothing ever came of it publicly, and now the actual frontrunner is a different WWE alum entirely. Unlike Strowman, Bautista didn’t need to cosplay his way into the conversation. He’s coming off a bulked-up shoot for the Highlander reboot, where he’s playing the villainous Kurgan opposite Henry Cavill and fellow WWE alum Drew McIntyre, a project we’ve written about before. He’s already built for a role this physical.
What the Show Is About
God of War comes from writer, executive producer, and showrunner Ronald D. Moore, adapting Sony’s video game franchise for the screen. It has a two-season order, with both seasons filming back to back. The story follows father and son Kratos and Atreus (Callum Vinson) as they journey to spread the ashes of Kratos’s wife and Atreus’s mother, Faye, with Kratos trying to teach his son to be a better god while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.
The rest of the cast already includes Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Ed Skrein as Baldur, Max Parker as Heimdall, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Teresa Palmer as Sif, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Jeff Gulka as Sindri, and Danny Woodburn as Brok.
A six-time world champion who’s spent the last several years quietly becoming one of the more in-demand actors to come out of WWE, landing Kratos would be Bautista’s biggest genre role yet. Nothing is official. But between this and the Kurgan, it’s shaping up to be a very good year for him to not be wrestling.
