Prime Video’s God of War series is losing its lead. Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios have decided to recast the role of Kratos after Ryan Hurst suffered a serious on-set injury, according to Deadline.
Hurst tore a bicep while performing a stunt on the Vancouver set in late June, a report first surfaced by TMZ. He has since had surgery and is recovering, but the timeline worked against him. Serious bicep tears that require surgery generally take four to six months to heal, and a full return to strength can take up to a year. For a role as physically punishing as Kratos, sources indicated Hurst likely could not have safely returned to filming until sometime in 2027.
That gap proved too long for the production to absorb. The show paused immediately after the injury and has remained on hiatus since, but with prep expected to begin in mid-August ahead of a mid-October restart, the studios made the call to move forward with a new actor.
It is a brutal turn for Hurst, who committed fully to the part. He reportedly added 40 pounds of muscle after landing the role and spent months filming the demanding production before getting hurt doing his job. The timing stings even more given that Hurst appears in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, which hits theaters this week.
Starting Over on Four Finished Episodes
The recast comes at a real cost to the production. Four episodes were reportedly complete when the injury happened, and all of them will need to be reshot with the new Kratos. Salvaging existing footage was never a realistic option anyway, since co-lead Atreus is played by child actor Callum Vinson, and young performers age noticeably fast on long production timelines.
God of War began filming in February in Vancouver under showrunner Ronald D. Moore, with a two-season order designed to shoot back-to-back. That back-to-back plan reportedly remains in place despite the shakeup.
The adaptation of the PlayStation franchise follows Kratos and his son Atreus as they set out to scatter the ashes of Faye, their wife and mother. Along the way, Kratos works to teach his son how to be a better god while Atreus pushes his father to become a better human.
The supporting cast is stacked with 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. Frederick E.O. Toye directed the first two episodes.
A Rare but Not Unprecedented Move
Recasting a series lead over an injury almost never happens, but there is precedent. In early 2020, O’Shea Jackson Jr. stepped in for Winston Duke on Apple TV’s Kevin Durant drama Swagger after Duke was hurt early in Season 1 production. Netflix took a different path with Cowboy Bebop, shutting down for the better part of a year after John Cho injured his knee in 2019, then resuming with Cho still in the lead once he recovered.
God of War is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios in association with PlayStation Productions and Moore’s Tall Ship Productions. Executive producers alongside Moore include Maril Davis, Cory Barlog, Naren Shankar, Matthew Graham, Asad Qizilbash, Jeff Ketcham, Hermen Hulst, Roy Lee and Brad Van Arragon.
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