The years may have proven that video game adaptations are not a good idea when it comes to film, but God of War director Cory Barlog seems to think they’d make excellent TV shows.
It’s difficult to find a successful live-action adaptation from a video game in the history of both mediums. In fact, we could make a long list of every failed attempt to bring these popular and fictional worlds to life, many of which have been wasted because the audience failed to connect to the adaptation as much as they did the source. Even something like Netflix’s The Witcher is, in fact, an adaptation of novels, despite CDPR’s massively popular trilogy of games.
So, it’d stand to reason that not many devs would like to see adaptations of their work on the big screens or even television, not to mention that many such projects have been trapped in arduous development hells. Cory Barlog, though, seems to be the exception, as the director of 2018’s God of War on PlayStation 4 has recently expressed his enthusiasm for a Netflix series on Twitter.
God.
Of.
War.(At least, I think so)
— the fake cory balrog (@corybarlog) January 27, 2020
Of course, fans would argue that a live-action adaptation is pointless given how cinematic the recent exclusive title was. Even in his reaction video just before the game came out, Barlog admitted to taking a risk with the latest installment in terms of how it changed everything in terms of narrative and gameplay structure. But if the overwhelmingly positive reception is anything to go by, his gamble paid off.
All this being said, Barlog was quick to suggest this isn’t a hint that anything is in the works, noting that games, in general, would make great TV shows as they develop a relationship with the character, as opposed to movies, which are essentially “like a date.”
In any case, we know that a movie adaptation of the Uncharted series is currently in development, so it’s not too difficult to imagine that we might eventually see a production company take on Sony’s God of War as well.
