Kratos is Being Recast in Live-Action God of War Show Following Major Injury on Set - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 July 2026 / 4,074 Views
The actor playing Kratos in the live-action adaptation of the popular God of War video game series is being recast, according to a report by Deadline.
Ryan Hurst was originally cast to play star as Kratos on the show from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios. He was seriously injured on set in late June. This is after spending months working hard to put on 40 lbs (18 kg) of muscle.
Hurst tore a bicep while doing a stunt on the show and has since undergone surgery and is now recovering, according to sources.
A serious bicep injury typically takes four to six months to recovery, with a return to full strength taking up to a year. This would mean Hurst would not be ready to resume filming until 2027. His recovery period is longer than the production shooting schedule could accommodate. Prep is expected to begin in mid-August for a mid-October production start.
The live-action God of War started filming in February in Vancouver and was shooting two seasons back-to-back, which remains the plan. Four episodes had been fully completed by the time of injury.
The show will now have to reshoot everything with the new actor who will take over the role as Kratos. Co-lead Atreus is played by child actor Callum Vinson, which means it would be hard to reuse footage as kids grow up fast.
Other members of cast includes Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Ed Skrein as Baldur, Max Parker as Heimdall, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Teresa Palmer as Sif, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Jeff Gulka as Sindri and Danny Woodburn as Brok.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Hope his arm heals up well...
With that said, I never saw him as Kratos
They really need to get a big ass eastern Mediterranean - Greek/Turkish/Egyptian dude
I think looking the part is more important than acting talent since Kratos hardly talks to begin with
They can fake looking the part, nothing wrong wth him outside the nose really and that's nothing for prosthetic artists.
Really don't have an opinion on how he looks by yes that injury sounds horrible.
Surprised Sony didn't replace him with a digital only actor.
Mandy Patinkin as Odin ... that's interesting. I haven't seen him since The Princess Bride. That was a long time ago so I don't know how much he has changed but I sure don't remember him having the frame to play Odin. His acting is more important at any rate though. I look forward to seeing him again.
If filming started in February, and by June they had shot 4 episodes - this is approx 1 episode per month. Even if the actor's recovery is the worst case estimate of a year - i.e. May 2027 - I wonder whether the move to change actor has any real benefit here. If they start again in mid-October, and have to reshoot the episodes with the new actor, this would take them all the way to mid-February 2027 just to shoot everything again up to episode 4. That saves 3 months of delays - and the estimate is on the provision that the original actor's recovery would take the maximum amount of time, and that the actor would be unable to do any light non-action shooting before full strength recovery. It seems much more realistic that the actor would be back and ready to shoot by no later than March 2027 to me, which makes the whole thing pointless. And it gets even worse when you refer to WebMD: A torn bicep in fact takes approx 3-6 months to heal back to full function, which makes the whole thing even more pointless and stupid. Surely they would save a lot more time if they continued shooting all other scenes not including the main lead, until the main lead has recovered?
Episodes are not shot in a linear fashion. So 4 being fully completed doesn’t mean much. There could be 10 half completed.
They don’t need to reshoot the entire episodes, only scenes with Kratos clearly visible. A lot of Kratos Scenes will even be salvageable.
