God of War: Ragnarok lead actor threatened to quit over new director

The voice of Kratos in God of War: Ragnarok says he tried to quit the sequel over its change of director.

In a series of tweets last night, God of War: Ragnarok actor Christopher Judge revealed that he was responsible for the God of War: Ragnarok delay, having required multiple surgeries in the autumn of 2019. Judge also revealed, however, that he almost abandoned the project for an entirely different reason.

At the end of his string of tweets, Judge said that "[God of War director Cory] Barlog told me at Tribeca [film festival] that he wouldn't be directing the sequel." Earlier this year, it was revealed that Barlog had taken on a new role at developer Sony Santa Monica, and would be returning to Ragnarok as a producer rather than a director. He's been replaced by God of War veteran Eric Williams, but Judge wasn't initially convinced by the change of lead.

Last thing. Barlog told me @Tribeca that he wouldn’t be directing sequel. I quit.(no joke) he said, do you trust me?(yes) He said Eric is a beast. I said he better be… UPDATE, ERIC WILLIAMS is a motherfuckin BEAST!!! @SonySantaMonicaSeptember 30, 2021

Judge claims that he quit the project, but says that Barlog convinced him to change his mind, saying "Do you trust me? [...] Eric is a beast." Judge is clearly a convert though, ending his tweet by suggesting that "Eric Williams is a motherf***in BEAST!!!"

It's hard to think what might have been had Judge actually left the project, but Sony Santa Monica has confirmed that he's definitely staying on. After the last State of Play, the company introduced a suite of new and returning God of War: Ragnarok characters and their actors, including a very beefy Thor.

Eric Williams and Cory Barlog spoke to GamesRadar+ about the return of Kratos.

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I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.