Amazon has released the first photo from the upcoming series for the popular gaming franchise “God of War”. It wasn’t well received.
Movies and series adaptations based on video games have a long and persistent tradition of being OK at best and completely abysmal at worst. At times, flops were so common that there was talk of a curse in gaming circles. For some gaming fans, it now seems to be expanding to include Sony’s popular “God of War” franchise. The first photo of Kratos (Ryan Hurst) and Atreus (Callum Vinson) did not generate the enthusiasm we had hoped for. On the contrary.
The first picture of the series with the two protagonists was met with ridicule and disbelief from the gaming community. The entire composition seemed strange to users on Reddit and social media. Comments like “God of Temu” or “That looks like a YouTuber cosplay” were made. Actor Ryan Hurst published a post on his Instagram channel.
“God of War” series: The actor speaks out
It’s not uncommon for actors, writers or directors to defend their work during a social media shitstorm. However, it is difficult to say whether that was also the goal of Kratos actor Ryan Hurst. In the rather cryptic-sounding post, he wrote: “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet, kids.” The statement is open enough for multiple interpretations. The actor may not have spoken about the God of War picture at all, but for a section of fans, this is a clear confirmation of their theory.
One of the accusations about the image in the comments was that it was AI-generated. The fact that it came directly from Amazon, i.e. an official source, also failed to convince fans. So after Hurst’s post, questions and comments came up like, “Does he confirm that this is AI-generated content?” or “Bet Amazon used AI photos themselves but they’re not allowed to say so?” So the conspiracy theories are already bubbling.
However, other users have pointed out that it could just be a warning. It has happened repeatedly in the past that photos from early stages of filming did not reflect the finished product. This was the case with the “Witcher” series, where the first images of Henry Cavill as Geralt caused a shitstorm. The first photo of Hagrid from the new “Harry Potter” series also caused an outcry.
