Santa Monica Studio sought to entirely reimagine the God of War Ragnarok tale. The writers first considered a plot that would, in hindsight, make some reference to The Last of Us Part II.
[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]
In an interview with MinnMax, Matt Sophos, the series’ primary writer, acknowledged that God of War Ragnarok’s outcome could have been very different. In the original version of the game’s plot, Kratos would have perished in a memorable battle with Thor at the game’s very start.
“We gave the director [Eric Williams] the very first draft of the outline that we had created. Early in the game, Kratos was killed by Thor. Yes, he would pass away, but it wouldn’t be a final death. Atreus would essentially be responsible for pulling whatever was supposed to happen – and I don’t care, we can say it since it’s not happening anymore, so it’s just fan fiction at this point. – out of Hell.”
A 20-year time leap was intended to be used by the creators, during which Atreus would ostensibly acquire the knowledge necessary to deliver Kratos from hell.
However, Eric Williams was uninterested in such a turn of events, thus the idea was immediately dropped. The filmmaker was worried that the plotline with Kratos, who was intended to die but then come back to life, wouldn’t be well received by players.
As we know, until the very end of God of War Ragnarok, players are unsure whether the main character will survive the battle. Santa Monica Studio, however, changed its intentions and ultimately focused on the core topic of Norwegian mythology, namely fate and prophesy.
Have any interest in this book? Visit our God of War: Ragnarok strategy guide.