Amazon Prime Video has so far had plenty of success adapting video games into TV shows, with Fallout as the prime example. Hence, it was reasonable for fans to be confident about Amazon’s upcoming God of War TV series. Come the official reveal, however, that confidence somehow plummeted, with many fans voicing out their dissatisfaction, particularly with the costumes, the makeup, and even the actors themselves.
The outrage began as soon as Prime Video dropped the God of War “first look” on X, showcasing their live-action version of Kratos and his son Atreus, played by actors Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy) and Callum Vinson, respectively. The post was captioned, “Father and Son. Behold your first look at Kratos and Atreus in the God of War series now in production. Their journey to the highest peak begins.”
The reception on X was met with a mix of jokes, skepticism, and praise, but over on the PlayStation subreddit, it’s safe to say they didn’t like it. The top comment, for the record, was a sigh of disappointment, saying, “Amazon, don’t be sorry. Be better.” Other commenters were more articulate about their displeasure, with one claiming, “looks like a Youtubers cosplay,” or “Yikes! Those costumes look like costumes – brand new – and the colour of the makeup on Kratos’ head doesn’t match the rest of him.”
Additionally, many PlayStation fans seem so disappointed with the reveal that they might already be in denial, accusing the Prime Video reveal of being “fake” or a form of outrage-based marketing by Amazon. As one Redditor puts it, it “Looks like AI,” with similar sentiments such as, “this doesn’t look real. Looks like a picture made for marketing.”
The Stakes are Higher for the God of War TV Series
With how successful both seasons of Fallout were for Amazon, expectations are obviously high for the God of War TV series. High expectations are likely where most fan disappointment stems from, though, as a fan myself, some of the criticism does have merit: Kratos doesn’t exactly seem as beefy or as imposing here as he does in his video game version, which is already photorealistic enough to reliably copy.
Meanwhile, Atreus in the image reveal could use a better haircut to look more in line with his video game version. For the record, filming for the TV adaptation will reportedly begin in a few days (or hours) in March 2026, and it’s not clear at what point in the production the image reveal was taken, so there’s still plenty of room for hope. As for the release date, 2027 might be generous for the TV series, as filming is just about to begin at the time of writing.
Still, there’s plenty of reason to believe that the God of War TV series will be good; video game TV adaptations have so far found plenty of success, as evident from HBO’s The Last of Us, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Arcane, Castlevania, and, of course, the aforementioned Fallout. There are a couple of outliers, such as Halo and The Witcher, depending on who you ask, but even those have found respective audiences that kept them running.
