The new actor playing Kratos isn’t actually the first time the character has appeared in live-action. Thirteen years ago, God of War already had a surprisingly “realistic” take that most people barely remember, as Brandon White brought Kratos to life in God of War: Ascension – From Ashes long before the Amazon Prime Video series.
More than two decades ago, the thought of seeing our favorite video game heroes on the big screen was the kind of fantasy we all indulged in, even though game adaptations were nowhere near a mainstream obsession back then. Fast forward 20 years, and we’re finally about to get a proper live-action Kratos: Ryan Hurst has been cast for Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming series, the same actor fans recently saw as Thor in God of War: Ragnarok, now set to shave his head and embody the character in what will presumably be his Viking-era version. But here’s the twist: what if Ryan Hurst, the legendary Opie from Sons of Anarchy, isn’t actually the first “real” Kratos? And no, I’m not talking about those long-running fan fantasies involving Bautista or The Rock, but an actor who technically got there before everyone else – a man named Brandon White, whose time as Kratos lasted only a handful of seconds.
If Angelina Jolie could be Lara Croft in the 2000s and Milla Jovovich could reinvent Resident Evil on the big screen, why couldn’t we have a Kratos too? In fact, after the original game’s massive success in 2005, Sony Entertainment officially confirmed a film adaptation: David Self was attached to the story (the writer who reworked Tony Gilroy’s original script for The Bourne Identity), while Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) was set to direct. And in a fun bit of alternate history, before Bautista was ever linked to the role, Daniel Craig – then the most recent James Bond on the big screen – was at one point close to stepping into Kratos’s sandals.
After Craig, names kept piling up: Dwayne Johnson entered the conversation, the previously mentioned Dave Bautista became a favorite thanks to his action background and imposing physique, Henry Cavill was brought up back in his Immortals days (before Man of Steel), and even Djimon Hounsou – the celebrated supporting actor from Gladiator and Blood Diamond – was considered, a choice that reportedly had the endorsement of God of War creator David Jaffe himself. Other candidates were also floated, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan after The Walking Dead and even Chris Hemsworth, though none of them ever got quite as close to the part as Craig or Hounsou did.
The First “Real” Kratos Wasn’t Any of Them – It Was Brandon White in 2013
Over time, the entire adaptation lost momentum: one name replaced another, the project shifted hands, and eventually it seemed to vanish into the background. Still, there was one live-action Kratos that a small number of fans do remember – not from a movie, but from television: Bran(don) White. After God of War 3 ended on an enormous cliffhanger that would take eight years to truly pay off, Sony was hungry for more entries in the franchise, and Ascension arrived to fill a gap no one really asked for; at the same time, PlayStation poured serious money into presenting a more grounded, more human, more “realistic” Kratos.
The budget reached $50 million – more than God of War 3 itself – and the marketing push reportedly added another $30 million, including a trailer that aired during the 2013 Super Bowl. Considering the cost of advertising during the biggest sporting event in the United States, a 30-second commercial represented, according to Fox Sports, an investment of over $5 million. And that’s exactly where Brandon White was unveiled: in front of 108.4 million viewers.
The trailer remains one of the most emotional pieces the franchise has ever produced, centered on Lysandra and Calliope – Kratos’s wife and daughter – back in Sparta, when he was still serving as a general before becoming the Ghost of Sparta. In that short moment, Brandon White became the first live-action Kratos, grieving the loss of his family while sporting the character’s most defined physique in the Greek-era timeline and an overall visual style clearly inspired by Zack Snyder’s 300 – an aesthetic many fans considered the ideal way to bring God of War to the big screen.
Behind the Scenes With Brandon White
That two-minute trailer was far from cheap: PlayStation made a significant financial commitment to produce From Ashes. The company hired Quantum Creation FX, the visual effects studio behind Amazon’s Fallout and Apple’s For All Mankind, while the makeup was handled by Arthur Pimentel – an artist who won an Oscar for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and earned a nomination for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The “complex” short film was directed by Karin Fong, known for her work with Netflix on Cowboy Bebop and with Marvel on Spider-Man: No Way Home; and with his 6’3 frame and build, White was physically perfect for the role. But what ultimately sealed the deal was his face – specifically, what they described as his “Greek” features.
“It was a huge challenge because we had to bring a beloved character into the real world,” said Quantum Creation FX’s Christian Beckman, while White himself explained how intense the pressure was when trying to win over players: “I’ve played the games and I’m a fan, I love the character and his story, and being part of this story is incredible. When you have so many people following the game, so many fans attached to the character who are going to scrutinize every detail for any flaws, the pressure is obvious.”
In fact, it wasn’t only the first live-action Kratos – it was the first human Kratos. Fans were used to the Spartan’s brutality, which feels worlds apart from the close-up, intimate approach of 2018’s God of War, but From Ashes was the first time the franchise let us see a broken Kratos with real, human emotion. “Our goal was to get Kratos’s appearance right, for the fans,” the team explained – and as one final fun detail, they even measured his goatee to ensure it matched the character’s exact look down to the last millimeter.
Source: 3djuegos
