2018 was a magical year for gaming that involved some of the best entries of their respective genre in recent times. From Rockstar crafting one of their most heartfelt stories through RDR2 to insomniac games crafting one of the best adaptations of Spider-Man, 2018 was exceptional. But it was God of War that took the cake home when it came to the best entry of that year, thanks to a wiser approach toward the character of Kratos.
And it appears one of the major inspirations for 2018’s God of War was a scrapped story of one of the most influential franchises in Cinema history.
2018’s God of War was inspired by a canceled Star Wars project
Although Star Wars is too finding its footing in the realm of gaming with entries like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, the franchise also influenced one of the best games of 2018. The developers of the 2018 adaptation of Kratos wanted to shift from the roots of the original games and wanted to make Kratos a more relatable and wise character. Unlike the raging Sparta from the previous installments, they knew “the franchise needed to evolve in that emotional beat”.
And the thing that inspired them to take this step was a scrapped Star Wars project, which involved a more sympathetic and emotional origin story surrounding Emperor Palpatine. God of War creative director Cory Barlog opened up about the inspiration, as he explained,
“Probably the really small beginnings of this idea, the germination of this — when I was working at Lucas, I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [canceled live-action Star Wars] TV show. It was the most mind-blowing thing I’d ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f*cking heartless woman.”
Although things turned out great for the game, as it was showered with love upon its release and even earned a GOTY win under its belt, the show wasn’t as quite lucky despite the script’s brilliance.
Why the Star Wars project was scrapped?
Although the God of War developers commended the writers from The Shield and 24 for their work on the script for the scrapped live-action Star Wars show, the project never came to fruition. The work on this series began back in the mid-2000s under the working title Underworld, but despite the finished scripts, the Disney acquisition of Star Wars played a role in the discontinuation of this product.
The sequel to the 2018 GOTY also didn’t disappoint but fell inches short of winning 2022’s GOTY to Elden Rings. However, Christopher Judge finally won the Best Voice Performance for Kratos after losing to Roger Clark back in 2018, who won for his performance for Arthur Morgan.
Source: Wikipedia
