“God of War Ragnarök” is one of the most explosive video games of 2022. With a focus on Norse mythology, the game features the most famous characters in folklore such as Heimdall, Freya, Odin and Thor.
Thor, in particular, has received a lot of attention due to his prominent role in the game and his general popularity in pop culture. Thor has many physical and emotional layers. Variety sat down with narrative director Matt Sophos, art director Raf Grassetti and voice actor Ryan Hurst to talk about how Sonny Santa Monica approached the God of Thunder.
When the general public thinks of Thor, people are more likely to think of the Marvel comic books or the portrayal of Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There, he is a benevolent being, but in “God of War Ragnarök” he is portrayed as a merciless killing machine. Sophos says this path fits with the story the team was trying to tell.
“We did the heart of everything Marvel has done, where all gods are bad guys, and all giants are good guys,” he says, noting that Gutenheim’s Frost Giants was negatively portrayed in the MCU.
Sophos continues, “virtually everything we know about Norse mythology, the gods were much more gray than they were in a lot of popular portrayals, especially the MCU.” Bring a bull goat, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. In one story, a bull sleeps in a peasant family’s home and lets them eat his goats. As long as nothing happens to the goat bones, Thor can revive them with his hammer, Mjolnir, without any problems.
However, when a kid breaks one of the pork bones, the resurrected goat returns with a lame hind leg. As a punishment, Thor takes each of the family’s children and makes them his servants forever.
“Yes, this is actually how they conveyed the story to me,” says Hearst, who voices the formidable deity in Ragnarok. “They said, ‘We want you to play a bull. How do you feel about the goats?’”
Hearst explains that one of the main inspirations for his movie Thor was Sheriff Ed Tom Bell to Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men. “He was a powerful being with forms of remorse that were evident in his voice,” he says.
Surprisingly, Hearst invokes the structure as another source of inspiration. He says that both characters have uncontrollable amounts of rage and rage, and sometimes you don’t even know where to direct them. They also love martial arts. “There’s some of that, coming through with the old saying, ‘Hulk Smash,’ but in a way more layered.” He continues, “The way I’ve interpreted it is that you need to access superhuman amounts of power, anger, and unpredictability.”
Sony Santa Monica
As for Thor’s design, most walking deities were generally created to be taller than Kratos. “We knew he had to be as impressive as Kratos, if not more,” says Grassetti. Making a bull of this size was circling his looming presence.
Sophos adds, “We wanted nature to be imposed from Thor. We set a precedent in the last game when I first saw one of Thor’s sons, Magni, who was also really big. You extrapolate that to Papa, so it’s going to be big.”
Prior to the 2018 “God of War” release, previous games in the series used Greek mythology. Grassetti explains that the biggest difference between the design of the Greek and Scandinavian deities is that, historically, the latter was not nearly as flashy. There was a delicate balance between making the Norse gods look impressive, but also not throwing something like gold-plated armor at them.
He says, “When we design these gods, and know where we are going with the privilege being so much more on Earth, these gods live with mortals. But they still need to look like gods.”
One of the most famous parts of Thor’s design are its exposed belly within the upper body armor and shoulder pads. This contrasts with Thor from the MCU, where Hemsworth typically exercises chiseled abs – Thor’s initial design controversy With those who were expecting something similar.
“I’ve reduced a lot of the graphic to something that can be read from afar. His stomach was obviously very imaginative for what it is, and we had to make sure he was proud of that,” Grassetti explains.
What distinguishes Thor is how he contrasts with Kratos. for example, Left-handed bull while Kratos is right-handed. In addition, Kratos can remember his Leviathan Ax when he throws it like a boomerang, and it will return to his hands. However, while Thor can do the same, he also tends to travel to the hammer instead – throwing it to a destination and then jumping there.
At the same time, Sophos says that Thor is a clone of Kratos. Thor thinks he is beyond repair because he has done horrific things like killing a group of giants. Similarly, Kratos started his new family after killing all the Greek gods in the previous games of the franchise.
“He’s just trying to hold on to what he’s left in the family he has together,” Sophos explains. “He’s trying to be better, but in the end he doesn’t think he can be, because he had a father in Odin, who told him he couldn’t be more than he is, only this blunt machine to use when Odin needed to kill something.”
He adds, “What if Thor made a different choice? Maybe it shouldn’t be that way. If Kratos tries to be better, could Thor try to be better?”
Sophos is looking forward to seeing players’ reaction to Thor in “God of War Ragnarök,” especially since Marvel has already set expectations. “I hope we’ll surprise people in ways they didn’t expect to come, but realize it couldn’t be any other way with Thor in our game,” he says. “I’m so grateful Ryan got in to play this character because he breathes so much life into someone who could be one note.”
Hurst adds: “I am so excited for people to finally be able to purchase [this game] around the world.”
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