Who Should Replace Ryan Hurst in the God of War TV Series? Our Fan Poll is Yielding Some Must-See Results

The God of War TV series lost its lead actor when Ryan Hurst suffered a catastrophic injury that took him out of the role of Kratos. Soon after news of Hurt’s injury, word came down that Amazon/MGM Studios is looking to recast Kratos with a new actor. The four episodes of the show Hurst shot and completed will be reshot, essentially meaning that the entire God of War TV series will need to be remade.

The injury to Ryan Hurst is tragic, as is the thought of God of War‘s cast and crew having to reshoot the hard work they already put in. That all said, a lot of fans are currently hung up on the idea of having to revisit (and relitigate) the casting of Kratos, given the fair amount of controversy (and backlash) over Hurst getting the job in the first place. But rather than indulge in online chatter (and trolling), we thought we’d instead ask the people what they want. And (at the time of writing this…) there seems to be a clear consensus.

POLL: Who Should Replace Ryan Hurst as Kratos in God of War TV Series?

Based on our own polling (and social media responses) here at ComicBook, the early consensus seems to be that Christopher Judge is the best choice to replace Ryan Hurst as Kratos. Judge is no stranger to the God of War franchise: he’s played Kratos in the rebooted version of the God of War game series, including God of War (2018) and its sequel, God of War Ragnarök (2022).

Since the TV series will be largely based on those games, Judge has been a frontrunner in fan-casting lists since this live-action TV series was announced. In fact, Hurst landing the role sparked a fair amount of controversy and once again sparked the debate about whether gaming actors deserve shots at live-action adaptations. Maybe Amazon-MGM will take this opportunity as a sign?

Other names we offered were Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista, action (B-)movie icon Gerard Butler (Den of Thieves), and, of course, Bautista’s former WWE colleague, Triple-H, who has been a longtime fan-cast favorite. However, it is questionable how realistic any of these options are; Amazon/MGM is in the business of building blockbuster-sized TV universes out of popular fandom IPs, be it The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Fallout, Spider-Noir, Invincible, or even “dad show” fandoms like Cross and Reacher.

That’s all to say: the studio probably wants a veteran character or big-name in the lead of God of War; Butler may be the only person with the resume and appropriate daddy-age look to step in. Of course, Gerard Butler has opted to be the king of “B” and “C-level” action movies, rather than leap to TV. Could God of War be the project (with the salary) that changes his mind on that? The actor got his big break turning Greek mythology into a dramatic action in Zack Snyder’s 300, so God of War would be a full-circle turn for him, really.

You’ve heard our take, now jump into the ComicBook Forum discussion and let us know who you think the new Kratos should be!

God of War is on hiatus until a new lead actor is chosen.