By 
It took a while to get going, but Amazon Prime Video’s live-action “God of War” series adaptation finally went into production earlier this year – only for it to hit choppy waters in June when its star Ryan Hurst was injured.
Hurst was playing Kratos, the god-killing character of the games played memorably by Terrence C. Carson in the original Greek-era games and former “Stargate” alum Christopher Judge in the Norse-era games that began in 2018.
The latter is what the series is being based on and some raised the question as to why Judge himself wasn’t hired? After all, he’s become somewhat synonymous with the role and is still a working actor.
Speaking at a recent panel at Fan Expo Canada (via Collider) Judge says initially he “didn’t want to do it” because he’s now 62 years old and the idea of 16-to-18-hour workdays and constant dieting/working out held no appeal.
He had a brief change of heart after speaking with his grandson and so gave it a shot – working out hard and reading for it, but quickly realised his body wasn’t up to it anymore:
“We had talked, and I thought, ‘God, what a great legacy to leave for my grandson.’ So I started working out. I got bigger. Then, just the reality of it… because I did read! I did read for it. It was so hard for me to memorize my lines, which I never had a problem with. And that was my mind and body starting to tell me, ‘You don’t want to do this.’ I was one of the leads of Stargate at 33 to 44 and then stopped. Now, at 62, to be the lead, I just have no desire to live that way again.”
With Hurst’s exit from the role, Dave Bautista was recently hired to take on the part. Judge was asked about the hiring and wishes the actor well, hoping Bautista’s health isn’t sacrificed for the part:
“With Ryan, I thought that was absolutely the right choice. He’s played all the games. He’s a gamer and new father; like, who better? Then when he got hurt, it was like, are they going to take time to read with and call people back?
So when I heard the name of Bautista, I thought, ‘Didn’t he just lose like 100 pounds?’ So I hope he’s going to be great. I think he’s going to be great. I just hope it doesn’t cause any health issues to put back on all that weight.
So all I want is whoever… that he loves this character as much as we all do, and he just let s it fly. Don’t be afraid of being emotional. Don’t be afraid of being soft or whatever. As long as you lead with honesty and love, it’s going to be great. So I’m happy for him.”
Ronald D. Moore serves as showrunner on the two-season series which is shooting both seasons back to back. Shooting resumes in mid-October in Vancouver.
The post Christopher Judge On Turning Down “God of War” appeared first on Dark Horizons.
