Prime Video Makes Rare Move After Actor's Injury

Prime Video's big-budget take on God of War is moving forward without its original Kratos. Deadline reports that Ryan Hurst, cast as the Spartan warrior in the PlayStation video game adaptation, is being replaced after suffering a serious on-set injury at the end of June that forced a production shutdown in Vancouver. Hurst reportedly tore a bicep while performing a stunt, had surgery, and now faces a lengthy rehab that could delay a safe return to the physically demanding role until 2027—far beyond the show's shooting window. TMZ notes that it's not clear what kind of stunt Hurst was doing when he got hurt.

Per Deadline, producers Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios opted to recast, a rare step for a series lead, and will reshoot the four completed episodes with the new Kratos; the presence of child co-star Callum Vinson as Atreus would've made reusing existing footage difficult. Prep is slated to resume in mid-August for an October restart, with the two-season shoot still planned back to back. The mythology-heavy series from showrunner Ronald D. Moore also stars Mandy Patinkin as Odin and Olafur Darri Olafsson as Thor. In the meantime, Hurst can be seen in Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, opening this week, which Gizmodo deems Hurst's "consolation prize" after the bad news on God of War.