God Of War TV Show Writer Says He Gave Up On Trying To Play The Games

Amazon’s God of War TV show was announced years ago and is still sorting itself out behind the scenes. Now, well-known TV writer Ronald D. Moore has confirmed he’s joined the project, adding that it’s already slated for at least two seasons. Also, he’s never really played the games because modern controls are just a pain in the ass.

“Right now I’m working on the adaptation of this video game called God of War, that Amazon has ordered two seasons of and they asked me to come in, I’m literally in the writers room and that’s my new thing,” Moore, best known for the 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot, said on a recent episode of the The Sackhoff Show with Katee Sackhoff who starred in that show as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (via Gamesradar).

He added that he hasn’t played video games since the arcade days, however, and quickly bounced off the new God of War series. “The controllers now…” he said laughing, “Press R1. Which one’s R1? Oh, I’m dead! I can’t quite get a hold of that.”

If anyone else said this, gaming fans—a notoriously chill and reasoned bunch—would unleash a cacophony of online Kratos yells. Moore, who has credits on some of the most beloved TV episodes around, starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation, can probably get a pass. In fact, players will probably just be relieved that the project is continuing forwards with the involvement of such a veteran creative force.

Variety reported that the God of War TV show had to effectively start over from scratch last year after Showrunner Rafe Judkins (Wheel of Time) and executive producers Hawk Ostby (The Expanse) and Mark Fergus (Children of Men) all simultaneously departed the project. Head of Amazon TV, Vernon Sanders, previously promised the adaptation would be faithful to the original games, which has certainly served HBO’s Last of Us series well.

But I have a feeling the mythology-inspired source material would be better served with more artistic license, building out the God of War universe in bold new directions rather than just recreating the already cinematic source material in live-action. So, maybe Moore having no experience with the actual games will be a boon to the project. Or he can just watch a longplay on YouTube.