It appears as though there may be hope for video game adaptations in the live-action space. For the longest time, video games would be adapted for TV or movie screens and would go poorly more often than not. Even when you got a hit or one that at least wasn’t terrible, it would immediately be followed up by one that would bring everything back down again. However, with the success of The Last of Us, many feel that the tide is changing. That’s good because more gaming adaptations are already in the works, including the God Of War TV series.
As you can guess, there are many differences between these two franchises. One is based on a mostly realistic world, and the other is full of gods and monsters that must be brought to life in exciting and terrifying ways. The good news is that the series is being handled by Amazon, so the budget should be good enough to handle the CGI and VFX issues.
But we’ve seen big-budget movies and TV shows still be terrible, and it’s mainly because they stray way too far from what the games are. In an interview with Deadline, Sony Pictures TV Studios president Katherine Pope discussed the upcoming God of War adaptation and promised that all its “values” would be in place:
“I’m so impressed with what they’re already doing in terms of building out that world and expanding, keeping all the values of the game but also expanding it so that if you don’t know the game, it’s still going to be a really satisfying show on its own,” Pope said. “I think people somehow think it’s an easier job to develop IP but, in many ways, it’s harder than coming up with an original idea.”
She’s not wrong. When developing an original series, you can make the rules and the world to your liking. Moreover, the audience doesn’t know what to expect as they’ve never been there. But with an adaptation, there’s reference material to look up, games to play, cutscenes to watch, etc. They know what’s coming because they’ve potentially seen it all before.
That being said, not unlike with the HBO series, the Amazon show expanding the lore and characters to help flesh them out more isn’t a bad idea. But it’s also important that Kratos gets his due and that the fights with the gods and monsters are incredibly intense and brutal. Only time will tell if it goes in that direction.
