Picture spending twenty years lending your voice and presence to a character, then watching a studio adapt that same story without so much as a phone call to you. That’s essentially the situation Christopher Judge described — the actor behind Kratos in the rebooted God of War trilogy. Speaking at Fan Expo, he didn’t hold back on how film and TV studios handle video game adaptations.
His point landed almost like a one-liner: you already have a proven hit, and the first thing producers do is cut out everyone who made it a hit in the first place. This wasn’t vague grumbling either — Judge called out both HBO’s The Last of Us and Amazon’s upcoming God of War series by name.
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Judge’s Take on The Last of Us: Praise for Pascal, But With a Catch
Judge doesn’t dispute that Pedro Pascal delivered a strong performance, but he raised an uncomfortable question anyway: did the new cast actually outdo the original game’s actors? He mentioned attending a table read featuring the God of War cast members, calling the experience genuinely impressive. What bothered him most, though, was something else entirely — several scenes in the show mirror the game almost shot for shot, yet the original writers and voice actors were never brought on board.
Why the God of War Series Situation Looks Even Worse
At least The Last of Us kept Neil Druckmann involved — one of the game’s original creators, who worked on the show’s first two seasons. God of War took a different path entirely: not a single writer connected to the original game trilogy made it onto the series’ writing team. Judge’s reaction was blunt — people who spent two decades living in this world got passed over in favor of people just now discovering it.
The cast overhaul tells a similar story. After Ryan Hurst, who voiced Thor in Ragnarök, was injured and had to be replaced, virtually only one actor is set to reprise their role — Alastair Duncan, the voice of Mimir. Everyone else who worked on the games has no involvement in the show.
Original game talent still attached to the adaptations:
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The Last of Us — Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the original game (first two seasons)
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God of War — Alastair Duncan returning as Mimir
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God of War — none of the trilogy’s writers are involved in the series
Judge’s criticism carries extra weight precisely because it isn’t coming from an outside critic — he’s both the voice behind the game and a firsthand witness to how the industry treats someone else’s creative legacy. For players, this isn’t just a minor gripe. The fewer people involved who actually understand the source material from the inside, the higher the risk that what ends up on screen is a good-looking but hollow imitation of a world fans already know intimately. Whether this criticism actually shifts Amazon’s or Sony’s approach remains to be seen, but with names like Druckmann and Judge weighing in, the conversation around the God of War series isn’t going away anytime soon.
