Live-action video game TV shows have been coming out in droves in recent years. The upcoming God of War is another one of these shows. Recently, Christopher Judge (the voice of Kratos in the recent God of War games) has said something a bit controversial but, at the same time, something that made sense.
What did he say and why was it controversial?
To paraphrase what he said, “This series (God of War) has existed for years, and you make a live-action TV show about it. However, you don’t hire anyone associated with it- none of the writers to the actors that are involved”. That is true, for the most part, because it is interesting to note that the initial casting for Kratos is Ryan Hurst, the voice actor for Thor in God of War Ragnarok.
In the image below is the initial reveal of artwork for how Ryan Hurst would have looked in the series. Unfortunately, he is no longer playing Kratos for the show. Before anyone believes the reason he was recast was that people were making fun of his look, that’s not the case. He was recast because he had an injury during shooting, and it will take months for him to recover, and Amazon can’t wait that long.
Do Christopher Judge’s statements hold something?
On one hand, he has a point; you have a lot of these TV shows on video games being manned by people who don’t know anything about the games. They end up being bad or just laughably horrible. The show is a hot mess, and with all due respect, and may he rest in peace, Lance Riddick playing Albert Wesker was a total miss.
Another great (or worse) example of this is the Halo TV show. While Jen Taylor (a voice actress from the games) is there, the writers and people who hold positions of importance were not. We all know how mid to maybe even bad that show was. How it got a second season is anyone’s guess, and season 3 just got cancelled anyway.
Some good TV shows based on video games
Some TV shows on video games have been good, for some time at least. The Witcher is a good one at least from the start. The later seasons were a bit of a letdown. Nothing against Liam Hemsworth, but Henry Cavill as Geralt was superb, although consequences led to him leaving the show. Other noteworthy live-action shows that are good are The Last of Us (maybe the first season) and Twisted Metal. There are some animated TV shows that are quite good, such as the Knuckles TV show and Secret Level, which is an episodic series with different video games like Mega Man, Pac-Man, Warhammer, and more.
Final Remarks
A video game TV show doesn’t need to have writers from the games. That would be a boon, but at the end of the day, as long as the show turns out to be good, then that’s all that matters. Even if the show doesn’t follow the source material to the letter, there’s an audience that can be built around it, so that’s all that matters.