In the hunt for IP and the mining for content across all media, Amazon Prime Video is seizing the moment as they set a series in the world of video games. According to Variety, God of War will be getting a television adaptation on the Prime Video streaming platform.
God of War just recently released its latest game in the franchise, God of War: Ragnarok which has done tremendous sales for PlayStation so it’s as good as any for Amazon to get involved in this project. Rafe Judkins, who acts as Showrunner for Amazon’s pricey fantasy series, The Wheel of Time will be showrunning God of War as Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man, Children of Men) will write the show.
The popular video game series, God of War debuted in 2005 following Kratos, the titular God of War, who amongst bloodshed in ancient Greece hangs up his weaponry to sail away to Norse realm of Midgard. After seeing Ares terrorize his family and friends, Kratos aims to do right by his wife by sailing away with their son leading to a conquest of battle, emotion and brutality. The series is ripe for an adaptation across film or television with Amazon leading the charge to bring the iconic PlayStation character to screen.
In regard to the series, Katherine Pope, the president of Sony Pictures Television Studios said, “We are so proud and excited to be working with our friends at Amazon Studios and our partners at PlayStation Productions to adapt this beautiful and heartbreaking game into a premium live-action series. Rafe, Mark and Hawk are crafting a transportive series that charts a path through the ancient mythological journey of Kratos.”
God of War is far from the only video game to television adaptation in the works. Also, in the works at Amazon is Fallout, which comes from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy as well as the upcoming January release of HBO’s The Last of Us which adapts the best-selling PlayStation game. No word yet on who will play Kratos in the series, but it will for sure be a coveted role due to the richness and depth that the character has within the lore of the games.
Ever since Lionsgate greenlit this series in early 2017, fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating to see how the John Wick universe expands. 4 movies in, the John Wick franchise is widely known as one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time with our titular character (a.k.a Baba Yaga) becoming one of the most iconic and bad-ass figures ever in Hollywood. The Continental: From The World of John Wick is a prequel series that tells the story of Winston Scott and how he became the manager of New York’s The Continental branch.
The miniseries was developed by Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward and Shawn Simmons. It is executive produced by Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the director of all four John Wick movies. It is structured as a 3-night event told through three 90-minute episodes. The series was originally supposed to air on Starz, but the network sold it to Peacock in 2022. After 6 years in development, it finally aired on Peacock this September.
A lot has been made of the subtitle of the project ever since it was announced. The fact that the makers needed to include it says a lot about the show. It almost felt like the prime marketing asset for it many times as the other promotional material didn’t necessarily create a lot of hype for the show. Albert Hughes directed the first and third episodes, while Charlotte Branstrom directed the second, and disappointingly both directors do not bring the same novelty or creative prowess that Chad Stahelski managed to bring in the John Wick movies.
The Continental [credit: Peacock]
The show also surprisingly lacks any real star power. This franchise is one of Lionsgate’s most prized assets, so you would imagine that they would make sure to get a big cast and crew for this prequel miniseries, but they didn’t. Colin Woodell as Winston Scott is the clear standout among the cast despite delivering only a decent performance, which says a lot about the acting standards in this 3-episode miniseries. Many have criticized the casting of Mel Gibson in the series, but I personally had no issue with his performance and he’s also the most recognizable member of the cast despite having no real audience pull anymore.
The writing doesn’t offer too much to ponder upon or any seriously shocking turns in the story as most of the focus is on making the product as epic, badass and action-packed as possible. Some of the characters had some interesting layers to them, especially Charon (Ayomide Adegun) and Lou (Jessica Allain). Lemmy (Adam Shapiro) provides some much-needed comic relief with his witty dialogues. The structuring of the story works really well as a 3-night event which sets the high stakes and sets a standard of intensity for the narrative.
The Continental [credit: Peacock]
But the thing that people were most looking forward to, was the action and how it fared against John Wick. Unfortunately, that department was inconsistent as well. Ben Robson’s fight sequence in the early part of the first episode was great and it makes you optimistic that the action would get better from here on, but it never does. Most of the action blocks here involve explosions and guns rather than the hand-to-hand combat John Wick franchise is known for. Some of the action was awesome and some of it sadly wasn’t.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick brings a lot of glamour as it tries to expand its world but fails to engage with its paper-thin plot. The characters are mostly dull with a formulaic villain and misses the presence of a magnetic protagonist like Wick. A prequel about Wick’s backstory would’ve been much more interesting than this inconsistent prequel event saved by its style and some great action. It has almost enough to be its own thing but doesn’t quite have enough to match its parent movies.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick premieres on Peacock in the US and Prime Video in the UK and Australia on 22 September, with new episodes weekly.