God of War star Christopher Judge originally turned down playing Kratos – and he explains how wrong he was, and what changed

When you hear Kratos speak in God of War, it’s clear that Christopher Judge was born to play the role. Judge took over the role for the 2018 game God of War after T.C. Carson voiced the character in the first three games. The developers immediately knew that Judge was right for the role. However, it was Judge who needed some convincing.

“I get sent this amazing script,” Judge recalls during a panel at Florida Supercon. “So, I call my agent, and I’m pissed off. Because obviously this is some big-budget A-feature and it’s going to go straight to offer, so why did you send it? And she says, ‘Okay, I know how you feel about these, but I wanted you to read the script.’ I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘It’s a video game.’ I said, ‘You motherfucking…’ And I went on from there.”

Judge was reluctant to take a video game role, believing it would be just like any other voice acting gig. His agent had to convince him to give it a shot, promising that there was more to it.

“And she said, ‘No, no, no, just listen. They say it’s going to be filmed just like film and television, and they said it’s not just you in a booth.’ I’ve never gotten a voiceover role ever in my career. Early on, I used to audition for them all the time, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Part of Judge’s reluctance came from the fact that he had minimal voice acting experience. However, his agent was persistent.

“Voiceover artists to me have a special talent that I do not possess. Also, gaming at that time was not held in the same light as it is now. So, to me it was like, that’s something you do when your live-action career is done. So, I was dead set against it, and I said ‘pass.’ She kept working on me. She said, ‘Just go in. If you don’t like it, we can just stop the process.’ Okay, sure.”

Judge auditioned, and things went so well that he was given a callback before he had even left the parking lot.

“Before I could even leave the lot, she was like, ‘They love you. They want you to come back for a chemistry test.’ Now I’m pissed off. I’m like, ‘I thought you said this was the lead.’ She said, ‘It is, but you have a son and they want to see the chemistry.’ I was like, this is dumb.”

After the chemistry test with Sunny Suljic, who voices Kratos’s son Atreus, Judge began to realize God of War was something special. However, he wasn’t aware of just how big the franchise was until after the game’s announcement at the 2016 E3 Expo. Judge sees that as a positive because it would’ve affected his performance.

“I had no idea it was a massive hit worldwide. It was such a blessing not to have the pressure of it.”

Pressure or no pressure, Judge’s motion capture performance as Kratos earned him a Best Performer nomination in the 15^th British Academy Game Awards. It just goes to show you that Judge’s agent had good instincts, and I’m glad she was able to win him over.

You can watch the full God of War panel from Florida Supercon 2025 here.

Follow Popverse for upcoming event coverage and news

Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.