How God Of War Ragnarok Might Be Inspired By A 1994 Jim Carrey Movie

Yes, you read that right, God of War Ragnarok is maybe, sort of, kinda inspired by a Jim Carrey movie–1994’s The Mask, to be specific.

Some late-game spoilers for God of War Ragnarok follow.

A ways into God of War Ragnarok, the boy himself Atreus decides to not listen to his dad Kratos, and trounces on over to Asgard to meet Odin. He does this because he wants to learn more about his identity and past, and why his mother wanted to call him Loki. But rather than helping him figure out more about himself, Odin wants him to study a mask that’s been broken into multiple pieces, with Atreus tasked to go find them.

As reported by Polygon, obviously this game is based upon Norse mythology. So in the tongue-in-cheek report, writer Maddy Myers wanted to find out more about this mask and where it fits into the mythology. Except she was unable to find anything to do with such a mask, other than the film The Mask and its sequel, Son of the Mask (2005).

In the film, the mask is made by the god of mischief himself, Loki, and it gives the wearer unlimited power essentially, which the mask in Ragnarok supposedly will provide too. The mask isn’t particularly explained in the game though, so there’s a lot of mystery around it.

To try and find out more about Ragnarok’s mask, Polygon reached out to the game’s PR team, and received a response from narrative director Matt Sophos. “We deliberately never say where the mask comes from,” Sophos said. “We do specifically say the Giants didn’t make it, but it’s a mystery to Odin that’s at the heart of what he’s trying to figure out.”

While Sophos didn’t acknowledge Jim Carrey’s The Mask in his response, Anthony Burch, who contributed writing to Ragnarok, did, saying:

“I very, very vaguely remember:

• I beat out a lot of the Loki/Odin plot arc and had them focusing on some sort of macguffin that represented Odin and Loki’s relationship
• Either myself or Matt Sophos…I’m almost sure it was Matt Sophos…suggested the macguffin should be a mask because Loki is searching for identity etc etc

I very specifically remember:

• Googling the [the mask from The Mask], sending it to Matt and also concept art, and at some point later on summarizing the plot of the game as ‘ssssssomebody stop Odin'”

All of this is to say, yes, the parallel between The Mask and God of War Ragnarok is absolutely there, but whether the masks are the one and the same, since there will definitely be more GOW but this concludes the norse duology, we might be better off saying “we may never know.”