‘I’m not a gamer,’ says God of War Amazon series’ new showrunner, unwittingly kicking a hornet’s nest despite years of acclaimed writing experience

Amazon’s upcoming God of War series is still in the pipeline after everyone previously making it quit last year—which, if you’ve been big into the weirdly decent era of prestige TV and animation coming out of videogames recently, should come as a relief. Kratos’ grim mien is still coming to the silver screen.

The series, intended to be a retelling of the 2018 game’s story, seems a no-brainer for some glossy prestige television. You’ve got two mythologies to draw from, and an already-solid script in the videogame itself to work with and expand upon. There are far worse targets for adaptation.

However, the series’ new showrunner, Ron Moore, has kicked off a flurry of skepticism during a recent interview with Katee Sackhoff by confessing that he’s (please have your pearls ready for clutching) … gasp, not a gamer! In fact, he doesn’t know anything about those newfangled controllers.

“Right now I’m working on an adaptation of—there’s a videogame called God of War, it’s a big title in the gaming world, that Amazon has ordered two seasons of … that’s my new thing.” When Sackhoff points out that it’s a “daunting property”, Moore replies: “Yeah. And I’m not a gamer, so it’s even more like ‘I’ve never done this before’.”

When asked if he’s tried to play God of War, he adds: “I’ve tried—I mean, I’m not a gamer. I took a stab at it, but I grew up in the arcade era where you go down and you put your quarters in and bang on the buttons. I can do that, I’ll play Defender, or Asteroids, sure, bring it on, baby … but the controllers now—press R1, which one’s R1? Oh I’m dead.”

Cue a flurry of headlines and articles lamenting Moore’s lack of gamer knowledge—with one clip posted to X having plenty of slighted gamers ready to wield their pitchforks.

Look, I do get it—I’d be lying if the whole exchange didn’t have me clenching my teeth, watching a seemingly well-intended industry vet unwittingly ram his foot right into a hornet’s nest. Considering the atrocious videogame adaptations of years past (and some of years present) it’s easy to want a deep, enduring passion on the adaptation of your favourite thing.

But Ron Moore isn’t just some guy. He’s worked on dozens of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and 2004’s Battlestar Galactica—more recently, he’s been on Outlander and For All Mankind which, judging by the scores I could find, have both gone down rather well. Moore’s also been nominated for two Emmys, won one, and has also been given several Hugo awards for his work over the years.

I’m not personally familiar with his work, mind, but I think it’s safe to say that he is probably halfway decent at this writing thing. Besides, I’m thinking about God of War 2018’s story, and—does Moore need to know how to score a meaty parry or get a good Niflheim run to get familiar with the source material? Is the process of running around and opening chests to loot a new rarity of axe really that integral to Kratos’ narrative? J’accuse! This guy probably hasn’t even even killed all nine valkyries for their epic loot!

I’m being a bit glib, here, but I really think that the relatively movie-like way in which 2018’s God of War told its story means Moore can hypothetically do just fine watching its cutscenes. Maybe he needs to crack open the Prose Edda for a bit, brush up on some Plutarch.

I’m still a little skeptical, but that’s more to do with how the original round of showrunners and producers ditched the project—not because Moore, a seasoned TV writer with tons of credits under his belt, happens to be bad at videogames. I’ll decide if it’s any good when I watch it, and not a moment before.