The God of War Laufey reveal was one of the biggest in this year’s Summer Game Fest season – and part of a record-breaking State of Play. The surprise reveal generated plenty of discussion but most of the talk centered on the game’s new protagonist, Faye.
You might think the decision to give Faye – who we were introduced to as Kratos’ wife in the 2018 God of War reboot – her own game was a relatively recent one. But according to Faye actress Deborah Ann Woll, the idea existed all the way back when the reboot was released – in 2018.
Woll, who also played Faye in God of War Ragnarok, and stars in Laufey revealed on stage at Game Con Canada over the weekend that she’d known about this standalone game for nearly 10 years.
“You know, again, I’ve known about this for nearly 10 years, and I haven’t been able to talk about it,” Woll told CGM. “[Cory Barlog] pitched it to me in 2018, and they had known about it before then. It’s wild.”
Barlog, who returned to God of War series developer Sony Santa Monica a few years prior to 2018, to direct what would be the reboot, has since ascended to lead the studio’s entire creative output. And the idea for a Faye game was seemingly mature enough in his mind back then that he already had a poster for it.
“When Cory [Barlog] brought me in to talk about doing Ragnarok and show me the 2018 game, he already had a poster for the Laufey game with me and a cube,” she added. “A cube that’s been there since the beginning. It’s deeply a part of the lore.”
The cube Woll is referring to, of course, is Phranque, a quipping, gelatinous cube who made their debut in Laufey’s extended reveal trailer, and who has themselves been the topic of conversation around the game.
Woll also shared an anecdote about the motion capture technology Sony Santa Monica uses. The actress was sceptical it would be able to capture all of her facial expressions and translate them accurately into the game, having seen how Kratos was captured in the 2018 game and Ragnarok.
“It’s the first time I’ve been able to experience my work as a viewer without judgment, without self-consciousness, because I knew how much work went into it after me, and that I can just appreciate that, the technology, but also the animators; they caught every little muscle movement that my face can make,” she explained.
“And I didn’t know Kratos is so stoic. I was like, maybe the technology can’t capture little movement, you know, because he doesn’t make a lot of facial movement,” she went on.
“But it’s also just because that’s the character. So it wasn’t sort of utilising that. So when I watched this one back, I was like, ‘Oh my God, every single little muscle movement, my eyes, little tiny things that they captured and put in that make a fuller, richer person,’ and really I was blown away.”
God of War Laufey is in development exclusively for PS5, and though it does not have a release date, it’s been suggested that it may be targeting a 2027 release. What’s definitely not happening, however, is a PC port, as Sony no longer intends to release its non-live-service games on PC.
