God of War Ragnarok
Image via PlayStation Studios

God of War Ragnarok changes directors, gets official title and debut trailer

Kratos is back but under a new director.

Cory Balrog has stepped out of the director’s chair for the God of War series, and Eric Williams will be taking his place for God of War: Ragnarok. The PlayStation 5 game’s first trailer debuted during the PlayStation Showcase 2021 presentation.

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In the trailer, Atreus has now grown into a teenager as he struggles to connect with his father. They are on a new adventure set in some arctic landscape. The trailer teases a war between them and the Nordic gods, but Kratos is hesitant. We see Freya in the trailer being antagonistic towards our two heroes.

Since 2004, Williams has been involved with every God of War title, even on the PSP games developed by Ready At Dawn. As he has almost two decades of experience with Kratos, he is a credible successor to Balrog.

“It’s always been a tradition here at [Sony] Santa Monica to change directors across the games, you know, we have really good success with that,” said Williams. “Cory’s really been only the repeat director and rightfully so; he’s pretty damn good at what he does.”

“The important thing for us is to be able to get a fresh perspective each time but also a fresh pair of legs in a sense that you’re really exhausted at the end of finishing one of these things,” Balrog elaborated.

Williams explained his thought process on God of War: Ragnarok, which should calm fans’ nerves on the direction of the next game. “From my point of view, we want to tell a very heartfelt and epic story as father and son are on a journey, and they kinda struggle holding on to stuff and letting go of things,” Williams said. “It’s a very difficult human condition that we all deal with.”

No date was given for God of War: Ragnarok, but it was recently delayed out of this year. There is a chance that God of War: Ragnarok will release in 2022, and we will keep you informed on when you’ll get your hands on the highly anticipated game.


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Chris Penwell
The British “Canadian” Chris Penwell has been a video game journalist since 2013 and now has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from MacEwan University. He loves to play JRPGs and games with a narrative.