Dave Bautista Recast as Kratos in Prime Video’s God of War

1 hour ago, Outsiders said:

Ryan Hurst tore his bicep, and even with surgery, the muscle can take up to a year to heal.

I understand that, but it's not impossible to shoot around that sort of thing if they really wanted to. As it is, they're going to be about three and a half to four months into his post-op recovery period before they even resume filming. Do some creative angles, digital face replacement, shuffling around the shooting schedule to allow lighter scenes to be filmed first, bit of rejigging the scripts and surely it would be possible for him to complete the first season. If he's walked away in light of the injury, then totally fair for him to make that decision to quit, but I can't believe that it's cheaper to cast a well-known name and start filming over from scratch, as well as the lack of support for Ryan from the studio.

47 minutes ago, Admiralty_Entertainment said:

I'm still hugely disappointed that they're ditching their existing star after 4 months of shooting due to injury sustained while filming, but surely getting Dave Bautista in for the role is going to ratchet up the salary budget ridiculously, especially on such short notice. I know it's Amazon so they probably don't care, but still...

Ryan Hurst tore his bicep, and even with surgery, the muscle can take up to a year to heal.

I'm still hugely disappointed that they're ditching their existing star after 4 months of shooting due to injury sustained while filming, but surely getting Dave Bautista in for the role is going to ratchet up the salary budget ridiculously, especially on such short notice. I know it's Amazon so they probably don't care, but still...

Deadline reports that Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television are in talks with Dave Bautista to play Kratos in the television adaptation of the acclaimed God of War video game series.

Bautista is being considered after Ryan Hurst, who was first cast as Kratos, tore his bicep during a stunt on set in late June. The injury occurred four months into filming and required surgery, followed by an extended recovery.

Production stopped immediately after the accident. Several weeks later, the studios chose to recast Kratos. Preparations are expected to begin in mid-August, with filming set to resume in mid-October in Vancouver, where the series has been shooting.

Dave Bautista has appeared in multiple Marvel movies, portraying Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Based on ancient mythology, God of War is being developed by writer, executive producer, and showrunner Ronald D. Moore. Filming began in Vancouver in February under a two-season order. Both seasons are still planned to shoot back-to-back.

The cast includes Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Ed Skrein as Baldur, Max Parker as Heimdall, lafur Darri lafsson as Thor, Teresa Palmer as Sif, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Jeff Gulka as Sindri, and Danny Woodburn as Brok.

Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios are producing God of War with PlayStation Productions and Moore's Tall Ship Productions. Moore, Maril Davis, Cory Barlog, Naren Shankar, Matthew Graham, Asad Qizilbash, Jeff Ketcham, Hermen Hulst, Roy Lee, and Brad Van Arragon serve as executive producers. Joe Menosky, Marc Bernardin, Tania Lotia, and Ben McGinnis are co-executive producers.

Ryan Hurst is 6' 6" and I sure as hell don't remember Kratos having hair in any of the games. He could be a bit more ripped, but wow, dude.

Amazon Prime? After they ruined Lord of the Rings and Fallout, completely not understanding either franchise... yeah, I trust them as far as I can throw them. Especially since they are not even telling the story of the proper Kratos, but the tired loser single dad Kratos version from the last two games which was a pretty bad story altogether and also threw pretty much the whole Norse pantheon under the bus... Why is it that most modern media has to turn Odin into a villain?

As for this image, my first thought was "Is that Paul Giamatti?" Because Kratos now looks like a short, pudgy bald guy.

On 2/26/2026 at 2:50 AM, interoceptive said:

Very blunt indeed. But I must admit I was also wondering why there are more and more articles about shows and movies that have no relation to toys. You could argue a tangential relation insomuch as there are Mortal Kombat & God of War toys... but these articles are not about the toys and more like advertisements for the shows & IMO clutter the feed. Sometimes I backtrack to TNI to re-check an article I have looked at several times, to check out the pics again and read more of the discussion - to think about and consider the toys being discussed and shown. But stacking several articles about shows and movies push toy discussions off the front page.

Frankly, they should do what ICV2 does, and have a "category" button on top. There should be "Toy News" and "Entertainment News", if they really want to report about stuff like this.

Hey I appreciate the entertainment/business/financial aspects, especially when you consider their impact on collecting. It's all connected. Sometimes it's good to walk outside if the walls feel like they're closing in though, lol.

But back to this ill-fated live action GoW: these pictures are not selling me, it looks like a comedy skit or something.

14 hours ago, HEROGEEK55 said:

Im going to be blunt.

If I wanted entertainment news, I would go to Variety.

Or IGN.

Or Deadline.

Or literally anywhere else on the internet.

I go to Toy News International for toy news.

Thats the brand. Thats the promise. Thats the entire reason the site exists.

And lately? It feels like that promise is being tossed in the trash.

Why am I seeing generic TV headlines?

Why am I scrolling past movie trailer coverage?

Why is a toy collector site suddenly pretending its an entertainment blog?

There are thousands of websites chasing the same recycled streaming-service headlines. Thousands. You cannot out-Variety Variety. You cannot out-IGN IGN. You will not win that race.

What made Toy News International valuable was focus.

Collectors dont go there for casting rumors.

We dont go there for episode recaps.

We dont go there for first look at upcoming streaming series.

We go there for:

High-res product images

Sculpt breakdowns

Articulation analysis

Packaging details

Pre-order alerts

In-hand reviews

Convention reveals

Thats it.

Thats the niche.

And when a niche site abandons its lane to chase broader traffic, it doesnt grow it dilutes itself.

It feels desperate.

It feels like someone looked at analytics and decided, Hey, entertainment headlines get clicks, and suddenly the identity of the site started eroding.

Heres the reality: collectors are not casual drive-by readers. We are obsessive. We are detail-oriented. We bookmark sites because they serve a very specific purpose. The second that purpose gets cluttered with irrelevant noise, the value drops.

Hard.

I dont want to sift through three articles about a streaming show renewal just to find out if a new action figure has improved ankle pivots.

And honestly? It cheapens the brand.

Toy News International doesnt mean Pop Culture News With Some Toys Mixed In.

It means toys.

If the site wants to pivot into being a generic entertainment aggregator, fine but then call it what it is. Dont pretend its still laser-focused on collectors while burying the actual collector content.

Niche sites survive by serving their core audience better than anyone else.

The moment you start chasing the same scraps as every other entertainment blog, you stop being essential.

And once youre no longer essential to collectors?

Youre just another tab people close.

LOL, also do you run over to those sites you mentioned and #$## at them when they report action figure news?

14 hours ago, HEROGEEK55 said:

Im going to be blunt.

If I wanted entertainment news, I would go to Variety.

Or IGN.

Or Deadline.

Or literally anywhere else on the internet.

I go to Toy News International for toy news.

Thats the brand. Thats the promise. Thats the entire reason the site exists.

And lately? It feels like that promise is being tossed in the trash.

Why am I seeing generic TV headlines?

Why am I scrolling past movie trailer coverage?

Why is a toy collector site suddenly pretending its an entertainment blog?

There are thousands of websites chasing the same recycled streaming-service headlines. Thousands. You cannot out-Variety Variety. You cannot out-IGN IGN. You will not win that race.

What made Toy News International valuable was focus.

Collectors dont go there for casting rumors.

We dont go there for episode recaps.

We dont go there for first look at upcoming streaming series.

We go there for:

High-res product images

Sculpt breakdowns

Articulation analysis

Packaging details

Pre-order alerts

In-hand reviews

Convention reveals

Thats it.

Thats the niche.

And when a niche site abandons its lane to chase broader traffic, it doesnt grow it dilutes itself.

It feels desperate.

It feels like someone looked at analytics and decided, Hey, entertainment headlines get clicks, and suddenly the identity of the site started eroding.

Heres the reality: collectors are not casual drive-by readers. We are obsessive. We are detail-oriented. We bookmark sites because they serve a very specific purpose. The second that purpose gets cluttered with irrelevant noise, the value drops.

Hard.

I dont want to sift through three articles about a streaming show renewal just to find out if a new action figure has improved ankle pivots.

And honestly? It cheapens the brand.

Toy News International doesnt mean Pop Culture News With Some Toys Mixed In.

It means toys.

If the site wants to pivot into being a generic entertainment aggregator, fine but then call it what it is. Dont pretend its still laser-focused on collectors while burying the actual collector content.

Niche sites survive by serving their core audience better than anyone else.

The moment you start chasing the same scraps as every other entertainment blog, you stop being essential.

And once youre no longer essential to collectors?

Youre just another tab people close.

LOL, Let me be blunt with you since you were so gracious to be blunt with us. Live with it. We've always reported Entertainment news related to things we cover in the realm of toys. We've been around for over 25 years and do just fine so I think we know what our readers want a lot better than you do. You wasted more energy making these posts about how you don't like Entertainment News then you would have just simply by scrolling past it if its not your thing.

2 hours ago, HEROGEEK55 said:

Im going to be blunt.

Very blunt indeed. But I must admit I was also wondering why there are more and more articles about shows and movies that have no relation to toys. You could argue a tangential relation insomuch as there are Mortal Kombat & God of War toys... but these articles are not about the toys and more like advertisements for the shows & IMO clutter the feed. Sometimes I backtrack to TNI to re-check an article I have looked at several times, to check out the pics again and read more of the discussion - to think about and consider the toys being discussed and shown. But stacking several articles about shows and movies push toy discussions off the front page.