2018’sGod of Warwas one of the fastest selling games of the last generation and a huge hit for Santa Monica Studios. The teaser for the next game promises that “Ragnarok is coming,” while the last game’s secret ending showed Atreus having a vision of Thor arriving to confront him and Kratos at the end of Fimbulwinter.
The actor who played Arthur Morgan inRed Dead Redemption 2, Roger Clark, is rumored to be taking on the role of Thor. Over the course of the lastGod of Wargame, Thor, though largely absent, was shown to be a very different character from Arthur – at least in mostRed Deadplaythroughs. Nonetheless, there are some great reasons that Clark could do fantastic work as the god of thunder inGod of War’s Ragnarok sequel.
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Arthur and Thor’s Dying Worlds
The Thor ofGod of Waris, by all accounts, a brutal monster. He personally killed almost all of the giants in Midgard when Odin was banished from Jotunheim for attempting to steal the giants’ knowledge of the future. Of his sonsMagni and Modi, Thor clearly favors the former, and when Modi escapes Kratos’ wrath and Magni does not, Thor badly beats his surviving son. He’s even cruel to his worshippers – Kratos and Atreus meet a spirit who hosted Thor in his house once, only for the god to get outrageously drunk and kill the man’s wife in a rage.
Arthur Morganis a far more sympathetic character, even if the player goes down the Low Honor route. However, there are a few similarities between the characters' stories that show why Roger Clark may be a good fit. For a start, both Arthur and Thor are subordinate to an increasingly unstable leader in a dying world.
Arthur is the third-in-command toDutch Van Der Lindeas the concept of the Wild West comes to an end and the last American frontiers close. Thor is the second to Odin as Ragnarok itself, the death of the Norse gods, approaches. Roger Clark has already proven his strength at playing characters as they grapple with the impending death of their world and disillusionment with their leaders.
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Roger Clark’s Thor
It seems very unlikely thatGod of War’s Thorwill show the same reflection and guilt that Arthur experiences over much ofRed Dead 2’s story. Thor’s fear, however, could be a very interesting route to explore. IfGod of War’s secret endingis anything to go by, Thor won’t exactly be accepting of his fate in Ragnarok. If he was, it wouldn’t make sense to attempt to take revenge on Kratos and Atreus, especially if Thor knows that Atreus is Loki and has his own fate in the Ragnarok prophecy.
Thor likely knows he is going to die, and over the course ofGod of War’s Ragnaroksequel, he will either likely choose to go out fighting or to truly accept his fate. At face value, this is a very similar dilemma to Arthur’s as he finds out that not only is Dutch’s idea of the west dying, but so is Arthur himself. Clark’s casting could risk feeling a little meta in this sense, but it’s more important that he has experience engaging with these kinds of themes than it is that players make the association between Thor and Arthur outside of the story.
It’s likely that Thor will be a larger than life character – if nothing else, the scale of violence he has perpetrated eclipses Arthur’s. However, just as the gods in many pantheons represent single exaggerated ideals, Thor could be an opportunity forRoger Clarkto explore some of the themes handled with Arthur and to realize them through a heightened character who may handle his fate in a very different but equally fascinating way.
God of War’s sequelis set to launch in 2021 for the PS5.
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