‘God Of War Ragnarok’ originally had a very different fate for Kratos

At the end of 2018’s God Of War, protagonist Kratos sees a mural prophesying his own death, and the same image makes a reappearance early on in Ragnarok.

In a new interview with MinnMax, narrative director at Sony Santa Monica, Matt Sophos spoke about Kratos’ promised demise.

“There was the earliest, earliest draft of an outline that we had come up with, that we took to [director Eric Williams where] Kratos died in the Thor fight at the very beginning of the game,” he said (via VGC).

“He was gonna die [but] it wasn’t a permanent death. What was going to happen [was that] he would get pulled out of Hell, essentially, by Atreus,” Sophos continued, before explaining there “was going to be a big time jump” of 20 years.

He added that he doesn’t care about revealing this new information “because it doesn’t happen any more, so this is all fan fiction at this point.”

Apparently, Williams was the one who vetoed Kratos’ death in God Of War Ragnarok though.

​​“Eric was like, ‘I don’t want to do that, Kratos has died and come back from it too many times’,” Sophos explained. “The hook, the emotion, wasn’t really going to be there, and he was absolutely right, and so that’s why it didn’t last very long.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Sophos explained that Kratos’ survival became integral to the message of God Of War Ragnarok.

“As we were developing the story, we knew we wanted it to be about letting go and changing. Knowing that Norse mythology is all about fate and prophecy and everything, we wanted to say ‘that’s bullshit’,” said Sophos.

“Nothing is written that can’t be unwritten. As long as you’re willing to make changes in your life, then you’re not bound to fate. When we knew that was the story we wanted to tell, we knew that Kratos couldn’t die.”

Last year, Sony Santa Monica confirmed a New Game Plus mode is set to launch for God Of War Ragnarok this spring with details set to be shared closer to release. ​​

2018’s God Of War received a similar Game Plus mode that introduced higher level enemies, new weapons and the option to skip cut-scenes as part of the game’s post-release update.

In other news, UK-based tattoo artist William Langford is aiming to ink all 151 original Pokémon in 2023, with money raised going to charity.