Yesterday’s State of Play ended with over 20 minutes of footage from God of War Laufey, Santa Monica Studio’s new spin-off starring Kratos’ wife Faye, who died shortly before the beginning of the 2018 God of War reboot. What was shown off appears to be the very beginning of the game, and there’s actually quite a bit to unpack in just this early segment. You got a few minutes to break down the whole thing? Let’s dive in.
Faye may be dead, but this isn’t a prequel…technically
The trailer begins with one of the opening segments of 2018’s God of War, in which Kratos and Atreus bid Faye farewell by cremating her, just as she requested. However, she then awakens in an unknown world, slightly disoriented, and unsure of how she got here. Faye may have orchestrated the events of God of War, but wherever she has arrived now was not part of the plan, and her story will end up running parallel to Kratos and Atreus’ journey.
True Blood and Marvel actor Deborah Ann Woll reprises her role as Faye, having previously appeared in flashbacks during God of War Ragnarok. As she runs through this mysterious area, she notes that her burned clothes must mean that Kratos and Atreus have burned her body as she asked, and that they’re “starting on the path” to scatter her ashes at Jötunheim. She laments that she wasn’t able to say goodbye to her husband and son, implying her death, while planned for, was sudden.
There are hints toward both Norse games, so Laufey may take place during the events of both
As Faye walks through this new area, she says she doesn’t think she’s in Alfheim, despite its similar warmth and overgrown buildings, but she does find something familiar: a corpse wearing what appears to be a mask similar to the Mask of Creation that played a major role in Ragnarok. Odin believed the mask granted infinite knowledge by allowing the wearer to see into creation itself, but its true purpose was left a mystery at the end of Ragnarok after Atreus refused to use it.
The mask Faye finds on a corpse isn’t an exact replica of the one from Ragnarok, but Faye seems to recognize it just before it crumbles. She says that if there is “another mask,” then the path she sent Kratos and Atreus on may not be safe. Girl, that’s an understatement. Perhaps we’ll see her influencing the events of God of War from the other side?
Faye is much more nimble than Kratos
We get a sense early on that Faye is much more agile than her husband was by the time we reunited with him in Midgard. She has a double jump and is generally more light on her feet. More of her combat kit seems to be focused on juggling Last of Us Clicker-like plant creatures in the air to make use of her verticality. She also has some limited magical abilities,which she notes seem to be weaker than they’re supposed to be. So even if Laufey borrows some elements from God of War’s over-the-shoulder perspective, it does seem like Faye will play quite differently than Kratos did.
Though Faye is lost, she’s not alone
YAY!!! Can finally say I’ve been working on God Of War Laufey @SonySantaMonica and specifically; I animated this lil guy here meeting Faye for the very first time!!!
I’ve put all my heart and soul into this lil guy, I hope ya’ll enjoyed it as much as I did. pic.twitter.com/BrqDuBiqyo
— Tuan Nguyen (@ilovekeyframes) June 3, 2026
Faye doesn’t know where she is yet, but she meets the first of several companions early on. The small creature she finds seems to resemble East Asian depictions of dragons, and though it doesn’t speak, it does guide Faye through some of the early areas she fights through. Given God of War has been mostly kept in the realms of Norse and Greek mythology up to this point, this is the first time this kind of iconography has appeared in the series, hinting at the true nature of this world Faye has found herself in. Speaking of…
Faye will be facing gods from multiple mythologies
Shortly after Faye splits with her furry friend, she’s ambushed by a pair of what appear to be Mongolian soldiers. As they wonder where Faye came from and remark that some kind of “gateway” has been closed. Faye is then dragged through what looks like a prison camp in which the Mongolian soldiers are capturing a smorgasbord of creatures and people from different mythologies and folklore. She sees what appears to be a Kitsune being subdued and a group burning small dragon corpses in a fire.
Though she attempts to fight back, she is dragged to Begtse, the Mongolian god of war, who initially makes a show of trying to intimidate her before being called off by Sekhmet, the goddess of war in Egyptian mythology. That’s an odd pairing, to be sure, but the very premise of the Norse God of War games was that multiple mythologies exist in this universe, and somehow all of them seem to be converging here. Begtse reveals that you can’t “die” here when Faye threatens to kill him, and offers to demonstrate that fact by beating her to a pulp, but Sekhmet stops him, and instead tells her that turning away from the truth will only make this all more painful.
Before things escalate, a bright light shines from what appears to be some kind of observatory in the distance. Sekhmet departs with a giant sphinx to deal with this “problem” as Begtse tosses Faye in a cage.
Gods and monsters and magical beings, oh my!
Inside her prison, Faye meets two new companions: a gelatinous cube named Phranque and a sentient ribbon called Rue wrapped around the hilt of a sword lodged in Phranque’s side. These two aren’t immediately recognizable as gods or entities from various mythologies, so fans are running rampant with speculation. Rue, the magical ribbon, could be a reference to Leizu, the creator of silk in Chinese legend or the Huntian Ling sash wielded by Nezha in Asian mythology.
Phranque, however, is a bigger mystery, as my guy is literally just a liquid cube that sounds like Hughie from The Boys (he’s voiced by Jack Quaid). One of the cool theories I saw was that he may be part of a larger whole and was severed from something when the sword was removed from whatever larger thing it was impaled in. What is the sword? It’s unclear at the moment, but one of the people Faye rescues later on says that it’s “more than [she thinks] it is.”
Some fans are theorizing it could be Excalibur, and that it could have been pulled from a body of water, as depicted in some mythologies, possibly creating Phranque when it was removed through some magical force. Faye has clearly fallen into what reads like a melting pot of different legends and magical forces, but where is she?
Welcome to the Everywhen
Phranque calls this place “the Everywhen.” It’s the afterlife of the gods, and when they die, they all end up here. However, it may also still have some connections to the living world. Once Faye is able to break out of her cage by igniting an explosive, she has a very brief encounter with what seems to be Kratos, who helps her off the ground in the rubble before he disappears. A fan decided to sync this moment with part of the opening from God of War Ragnarok in which Kratos briefly dies before being resuscitated by Thor, and it fits perfectly.
#GODOFWARLAUFEY KRATOS SAVES FEY WHEN THOR KILLS AND REVIVES HIM pic.twitter.com/byQTxBPHy5
— TheMainLogic 🐝 (@TheMainLogic) June 2, 2026
Whether this is just a really cool coincidence or intentional remains to be seen. The timeline doesn’t track one-to-one, as several years have passed between Faye’s death and Kratos’ heart briefly being stopped in Ragnarok, but this is the afterlife, so time may work differently here.
Full-powered Faye kicks ass
Now that Faye has accepted her death, she is able to tap into the full strength of her magic and also wields Rue’s mystery sword. This is where the differences between her and Kratos become much more apparent. She’s able to whip out spells that separate enemies’ souls from their bodies, pull off acrobatic feats, and work with Rue to tie up and toss enemies around as she slices and dices them with the blade. Kratos always sang Faye’s praises as a warrior, and it’s really cool to finally see her proving those rumors true.
The trailer ends with a cinematic fight between Faye and Begtse which, like many God of War fights, has both participants throwing each other long distances and still getting up for round two. Begtse also hints that there’s more to the blade Faye wields than she realizes, and Faye theorizes that the Mongolian God of War may be afraid of it for some reason.
The title card interrupts the fight just as things are getting good, but there’s a lot to chew on in these first 20 minutes of footage. Faye is dead, but may still be able to help the living as she fights through gods from multiple pantheons in the Everywhen. And she’ll have some help along the way, just as Kratos and Atreus did in their journeys. Santa Monica Studio says it will have more to show in the coming months, but God of War Laufey still has no release date, so we don’t know how much longer we’ll have to wait for the game to come to PS5. Whatever the game ends up being when it launches, the possibilities of multiple mythologies converging in one place have given fans a lot to speculate on in the months ahead.
