God of War voice actor Christopher Judge shared his admiration and respect for his predecessor when asked about the previous games. The actor who had first become famous for his defining portrayal of Teal’c in Stargate has gone to take on voice acting roles in not just God Of War but also T’Challa (aka The Black Panther) in Marvel’s Avengers, 2008’s Turok, Starcraft II, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, to name a few. He’s also been acting in television and film since the early 90s with a diverse range of parts spanning from comedy to science fiction where the bulk of his career has been spent. Judge recently attended a two-hour Streamlily broadcast and it didn’t take too long until fans began asking about his feelings towards the original God of War games which were set in Greece.
Judge was questioned about T.C. Carson’s version of Kratos but then also about the possibility of re-recording Carson’s lines for the flashbacks used in the new games. Judge was straightforward in explaining there was never any intent to recreate Carson’s performance nor does he would ever want to. Judge also mentions that another project had recently been presented to him to do just that and he rejected it for the same principle.
Christopher Judge (via Dexerto):
“TC is so extraordinary… even if they had asked, I would’ve said no. I was actually offered something not too long ago and I had to turn it down because they wanted me to somewhat match the voice of that character and I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ I love this dude, that would be such a slight…”
Judge has been keeping busy and also attended this year’s The Game Awards where the actor attempted to liven the mood with a joke at the expense of Call of Duty‘s developers. The latest Call of Duty game had barely been out for a few weeks but was already being criticized for its short single-player campaign, something fairly normal for the franchise since the game’s primary popularity mainly comes from online playing. Well, Judge decided to run with it, and while presenting an award to this year’s recipient for the Best Performance to Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Neil Newbon he added a little snub to CoD.
Per IGN:
“I’m not going to stand up here, making long speeches. I’m going to stick to the script. No eight-minute speech like last year,” Judge said, referencing the 2022 award ceremony when he won Best Performance for his role as Kratos in God of War Ragnarok. “But fun fact, my speech was actually longer than this year’s Call of Duty campaign,” he added.”
The developers were none too happy with the joke and in the end, everything ended up fine but it does go to show that the God of War voice actor’s sense of humor isn’t for everybody. However, those hoping for more of Kratos could be in for a treat as it’s rumored the original trilogy is getting the remastered treatment.