Interview: God of War Ragnarok\u2019s biggest plot twist left Tyr voice actor fearing for his job Santa Monica StudioGod of War Ragnarok\u2019s biggest plot twist briefly left voice actor Ben Prendergast fearing for his job. Here\u2019s how the cast and dev team at Santa Monica Studio brought that moment to life. While the God of War franchise was once best known for its over-the-top violence and staggeringly ambitious boss fights, the rebooted Sony series has turned a new page. Now capturing the minds of players worldwide with its heartwrenching narrative and extraordinary performances, the Kratos-led games have never been more popular. It\u2019s this pivot that earned the 2018 entry game of the year awards by the dozen and the same can be said of its 2022 sequel. One moment in particular from that most recent entry may even stand the test of time and be recognized as one of the all-time greatest plot twists in our industry. But exactly is it and how did it all come together? And why was the central voice actor behind it all left fearing for their job? We sat down with Ben Prendergast at PAX Australia to learn how this legendary moment came to life. Major spoiler warning for God of War Ragnarok. Do not continue reading this interview if you wish to experience the 2022 title with a fresh set of eyes. A \u201ccold\u201d first recording session on God of War Ragnarok When Aussie talent Ben Prendergast arrived on set in Santa Monica for the highly anticipated God of War sequel, two things stood out. Firstly how \u201cintimidating\u201d Christopher Judge was before they became good friends and even \u201cgolf buddies\u201d. But secondly, just how \u201ccold\u201d most of the cast was to him. Breaking down the recording process on a AAA game of this magnitude, he outlined how the crew bands together for a full rehearsal day before any proper shoot. \u201cThere are no pickups,\u201d as he put it, meaning there\u2019s no room for mistakes on the day. Your takes have to be spot on. \u201cWhen I went into the first session, I had this whole other take on Tyr that was slightly different,\u201d Prendergast told us. \u201cWe did this whole rehearsal and it was a little bit cold. I felt it was a bit weird\u2026 I was like, wow, some of these people are really cold.\u201d What he didn\u2019t know was almost everyone else on the production had their reasons for being so frigid. After that unnerving first day of practice, Prendergast was only left more confused when Kratos himself, Judge, accidentally let slip not all is quite as it seems with his role. \u201cWe get to the shoot day, and Chris is like, \u2018Oh, so you\u2019re that guy\u2026\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018What do you mean? I\u2019m Tyr, you\u2019ve been through his temples, you\u2019ve got his armor, what are you complaining about?\u201d It didn\u2019t take long from that point before the game\u2019s director stepped in to explain just what was going on. Though for a few hours, the Tyr we all know and love today was fearing he might be replaced. Tyr briefly feared for his job \u201cIt got to the end of the first day and the director pulled me aside and wanted to have a meeting,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m like \u2018Oh no, I\u2019m being fired.\u2019 I 100% thought I was being fired.\u201d One of just a handful of cast members not clued into the shocking plot twist, it wasn\u2019t until after he flew to sunny Los Angeles and made it through the first day of shooting that Prendergast learned of the truth behind his now doubly important role. \u201cI go in, sit down, and they\u2019re like \u2018Look, we really have to tell you something\u2026 You are also Odin.\u2019 \u201cWait\u2026what do you mean?\u201d he replied. \u201cI thought that was [Richard] Schiff?\u201d From there, it was off to the races, with Prendergast now fully aware of the scope of his performance. Not only was he responsible for bringing Tyr to life, but also for subtly representing Odin\u2019s mannerisms and energy without going overboard. A delicate balance he was constantly trying to refine throughout the rest of the recording process. \u201cI\u2019m so thankful,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey legitimately could have said nothing. But because they trusted in me being able to play both sides\u2026\u201d they clued him in early into the gig so it could help inform his direction, \u201cwhich in the end became really important. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a scene as Tyr, you\u2019re also in a scene as Odin. They\u2019re two different objectives. So it became a conversation after every take, we\u2019d huddle up and ask \u2018Is Odin doing enough of this? Is Tyr doing enough of that? Are players actually gonna cotton onto anything? \u201cThe whole time we were so afraid [of players catching on]. Tyr doing something too weird.\u201d It\u2019s clear now to everyone involved they did indeed strike that balance. Countless players were left stunned by the shocking revelation, and watching their reactions has now become a favorite form of entertainment for Prendergast. And while the events of Ragnarok post-Odin revelation seemingly set our characters off in a new direction, it appears there\u2019s every chance Prendergast isn\u2019t quite done with his work just yet. A few months prior to our conversation he teased we haven\u2019t \u201cseen the last of Tyr.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interview: God of War Ragnarok\u2019s biggest plot twist left Tyr voice actor fearing for his job Santa Monica StudioGod of War Ragnarok\u2019s biggest plot twist briefly left voice actor Ben Prendergast fearing for his job. Here\u2019s how the cast and dev team at Santa Monica Studio brought that moment to life. While the God of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}