The God of War television has a major new piece of casting. Amazon has confirmed via a press release that Mandy Patinkin, an actor whose career spans over 50 years across both stage and screen, will appear in the game as Odin.
Odin, the All-Father of Norse mythology, is an important figure in God of War: Ragnarok, serving as the game’s main villain. According to the press release, Odin is “not the most physically imposing” figure, yet “he is the most powerful Aesir god, a patriarch who leads with an iron fist, and an unrivaled seeker of knowledge.” The series will follow the plot of 2018’s God of War and its 2022 sequel.
Patinkin has had many memorable roles, but his most widely recognized is Inigo Montoya from Rob Reiner’s 1987 classic The Princess Bride, a travelling swordsman who is seeking the six-fingered man who killed his father. In more recent years, he played Saul Berenson across 96 episodes of the Showtime drama Homeland.
In the game God of War: Ragnarok, Odin is played by Richard Schiff, who is most famous for playing Toby Ziegler in The West Wing. It is, to date, Schiff’s only performance in a game.
The cast for the God of War TV series has been coming together, and includes Ryan Hurst as Kratos, alongside Teresa Palmer as Sif, Severance’s Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, and Max Paker as Heimdall. The most major casting decision yet to be announced is the part of Kratos’ son, Atreus.
Amazon is committing hard to game adaptations, with both its Fallout show and the upcoming Tomb Raider series, starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of film adaptations of games on the horizon: here’s a complete list.