It’s safe to say the so-called video game curse is officially dead and buried. HBO’s The Last of Us, Peacock’s Twisted Metal, and Amazon’s Fallout are all working on their second seasons after enjoying lauded freshman runs, although they’ll have to compete with a new challenger entering the arena. Another major gaming franchise is being adapted, and it has one big advantage: a showrunner with deep experience in genre television stretching back to the pre-streaming days.
Deadline reports that Amazon and Sony TV’s upcoming adaptation of the PlayStation game God of War has added Ronald D. Moore as executive producer, writer, and showrunner. The series, which was announced in 2022, was originally going to be helmed by The Wheel of Time’s Rafe Judkins, but a creative shift sparked his departure.
Calling Ronald D. Moore prolific would be an understatement. He’s a veritable science fiction legend, writing and producing for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, as well as two Star Trek movies. He then created Battlestar Galactica, a re-imagining of the classic ‘70s series. More recently, Moore has kept busy as showrunner for the time-travel romance drama Outlander, which was recently renewed for an eighth and final season, and co-created For All Mankind, Apple’s hit alternate history space series.
Obviously, God of War is not sci-fi. The series is based on the 2018 video game of the same name, which follows Kratos, the God of War, and his son Atreus as they venture into Midgard and battle foes from Norse Mythology on their quest to complete the last request of Atreus’ mother. It has the same parental “escort mission” themes as The Last of Us, but its setting is far more Twilight of the Gods.
Still, Moore seems like a strong choice for this adaptation, because one of his greatest skills is adaptation itself. His approaches often differ from his source material, but he understands what makes a story tick and how to make it evolve with the times. His take on Battlestar Galactica was very different from the original series, but that fandom came around to the reboot. Outlander also varies from the books, but the bodice-ripping romance of Diana Gabaldon’s books remains.
So while God of War may have been inspired by The Last of Us, don’t expect this series to be yet another attempt to repeat its success. Moore’s involvement hints that it could do more than just adapt Kratos’ bloody ways to television, but evolve his snowy world into something more.
