There are not many actors who can bring the needed vocal and emotional gravity to Kratos, star of the God of War video game franchise. When Sony was looking to take the series in a risky new direction with the 2018 release, it turned to former Stargate co-star Christopher Judge (“Teal’c”) to play the part.
Today Sony Interactive Entertainment debuted Raising Kratos, a feature-length documentary film about the making of the 2018 smash hit video game. The 2-hour film features God of War creative director Cory Barlog and his team at Santa Monica Studio, where the game was in development for some five years.
The documentary also shows Christopher Judge as you have not seen him before — funny and thoughtful, yes, but also emotional and intensely vulnerable.
Raising Kratos is available free on Sony’s YouTube channel. (Watch it below.)
Judge on the set of God of War, with co-star
Sunny Suljic.
Chris’ casting on the project starts at around the 26:45 mark. More footage of him in the dialogue recording both starts around 01:05:00. And there is a particularly emotional motion-capture scene starting around 01:30:00, where Chris talks about making God of War for his kids — as a love letter, and as an apology for his absence from their lives when they were younger.
He said that he was not initially interested in auditioning for a video game, but was convinced by his agent to read the script pages.
As the lead actor he carried much of the game’s story and emotional beats, alongside his co-star Sunny Suljic — who plays Kratos’ son, Atreus.
God of War was among the fastest selling exclusive titles in PlayStation history, selling more than 3 million copies in its first three days of release. The game has pulled in a raft of awards, including five BAFTA Games Awards — where last month it bested the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey to win Best Game.
It has also won Game of the Year from some two dozen publications and organizations, including Game Informer, IGN, and Time magazine.
Like the game it chronicles the film is rated M for mature audiences. Also beware of major story spoilers, if you plan to play the game.