Jaffe Reveals Inspiration Behind Kratos
When God of War first launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, it garnered amazing critical and commercial success. It also, undoubtedly, gave birth to one of the most iconic and well-known PlayStation heroes (or mascots if you will) in the form of the god-slaying Kratos. The bloodthirsty character has been decapitating, disemboweling, and inflicting harm to several mythological beasts on every platform in the PlayStation family for many years. But have you ever wondered how Kratos actually came about? The man who created him, the venerable David Jaffe, tells us where the inspiration behind the mighty PlayStation hero came from.
David Jaffe, who’s currently working on the latest installment in the Twisted Metal series for the PS3, revealed the inspiration behind Kratos in a recent interview:
“It took a long time to figure out what Kratos would look like, and ultimately we took inspiration form Edward Norton in American History X, when he played a Nazi. There’s this scene in which the cops arrest him and you just see how buffed and built he’s gotten. I showed that to the artist and I said, ‘Okay, that sense of power and aggression that you just see in his face, can we somehow take that, the essence of what he’s exuding, and somehow turn that into a character that fits into this Greek mythology world?”
So, there it is. Kratos was born via Edward Norton. Now, if you’d kindly excuse me, I’ll go watch American History X now.
13 Responses to “Jaffe Reveals Inspiration Behind Kratos”
Wow, I absolutely loved that film. It makes sense actually!
Was an amazing movie. Too bad so many people walked out of the theaters before it was finished. If censored for graphic violence, it would be great to show kids in middle school.
Thank God Krato didn’t look like ol Norton.
y does this take away from the coolness? i think it’s awesome
Yeah, why does it take away from the coolness? I like Kratos even more now, that was an amazing movie and Norton was great.
neo-Nazi, not Nazi, btw
His face in that shot is one I can alwyas picture.
Wasn’t Norton the hulk 0.o Kratos IS the hulk.
That’s pretty sweet. Norton was a beast in that shot. Jaffe, you done well in what you did.
I wonder what TC thinks about this!
Kratos isn’t that good a character. He has zero persernality apart from going around killing people and seems to always have the same pout face all the time. Sorry but David Jaffe droped the ball when he made Kratos, which is a shame because Kratos could have turned out so well.
Though your all free to like Kratos as a character as much as you want, don’t let me take that away from you.
Is that the best lying Jaffe can come up with after all this time… Sorry but this guy talks so much crap so much of the time….! Kratos was cool regardless tho lol
I always thought Kratos was an ADD version of Hercules.
Yeah, well I kinda consider Starkiller as Kratos done right. He’s out for revenge in a way against someone who has wronged him yet he’s got more to him, he’s striken between two sides of this big religion.
The Sith and The Jedi and when TFU 2 comes out I think the idea of them adding to this complex character can only make Starkiller even cooler. If there was a Star Wars 7 I would want StarKiller to return as the main character,
as in ignore the force unleashed (differant storyline) and have him going up against a new villian with a plan similar to the 7th book like bringing The Empire back.
I think I want off on Star Wars for a minute, this time let’s take a moment to talk about global warming….