'God Of War Ragnarök' Devs Explain Why Their Thor Isn't A Chris Hemsworth Clone

You may have already seen some of the concept art for the characters of God of War Ragnarök. With the reveal of the sequel at the PlayStation Showcase, several bits of artwork were released to show off the old cast's differences and introducing the new cast's appearances. One character, in particular, has been talked about at length since the release of the artwork because many had internalised preconceptions about how the god of thunder should look. But the Ragnarök devs have now talked about why exactly Thor isn't built like Chris Hemsworth.

When talking to Game Informer, the director of God of War Ragnarök Eric Williams, and creative director Cory Barlog has spoken about the artist choices that went into making the game's Thor and why he looks the way he does. And really it simply comes down to the fact that they just wanted him to look like that. Makes sense, huh?

Here's the trailer for God of War Ragnarok...

The director says: "We just want him to be a big boy, you know. There's Marvel's interpretation of him is one thing. It's interesting. We wanted to, you know, go a little deeper into the mythology itself. They have a presence immediately. And it's not always because of muscles. They're just like that is a wall of a human being, you know. So this is a wall of a God, you know, and that's why it was very important."

Barlog goes on to say that there is "something so fantastic in that that not everything needs to be this glistening muscle hulk kind of concept to still be fantastic and powerful and intimidating". And he's right. Though you may not think that Thor in the concept images looks muscular, I dare some of you to want to go up against him in a fight. You wouldn't want to, would you?

This Thor's physique matches that of many strongmen you'd see competing at the highest levels of the sport. They're not chiselled, they are massive, but they often don't look like the Hollywood version of strength that we've become so familiar with.

Topics: God of War Ragnarok, Santa Monica Studio