Sony Santa Monica Studio has revealed God of War Laufey – a new PlayStation 5 exclusive starring Faye, the deceased wife of Kratos, as its playable lead – during May’s State of Play showcase. The announcement came via a 20-minute trailer, confirming Deborah Ann Woll (Daredevil) as the voice of Faye (also known as Laufey), with Jack Quaid and Perlina Lau rounding out the cast as a cosmic cube companion and a ribbon guardian named Rue, respectively. No release date has been announced, but the trailer’s depth of gameplay and world-building suggests the project is well into development – nearly four years after God of War: Ragnarok wrapped Kratos‘ Norse arc in 2022.
Here’s the context: The God of War franchise has been running since 2005, when Sony introduced an enraged Spartan warrior tearing through the Greek pantheon on PlayStation 2. The series was reinvented in 2018 with a cinematic, father-son narrative set in Norse mythology – God of War (2018) is now one of the highest-reviewed games in PlayStation 4 history and was ported to PC in 2022. Ragnarok continued that story in 2022 before a free 2023 DLC introduced roguelike elements, hinting that Santa Monica was ready to experiment. Faye, who died before the events of God of War (2018), was long theorised by fans to be far more powerful than the games let on – God of War director Cory Barlog even said in 2020 that “Faye has way more power than all of them. She is actually the controller of so much within this universe.” The new game frames her as a Jötunn soldier navigating an afterlife where gods cannot truly die, and directly addresses the fan theory that she was the one who blew the horn summoning Jörmungandr in 2018. Sony‘s broader first-party strategy – including its ongoing approach to exclusive PS5 branding and franchise positioning – makes a flagship God of War entry without Kratos a significant bet.
Honestly, this is one of the most creatively ambitious swings a major first-party studio has taken with an established franchise in years – and the 20-minute trailer earns that claim. Swapping out Kratos as the playable lead is a genuine risk: the last time Sony tried a God of War spinoff without him, God of War: Sons of Sparta landed with a thud. But Laufey looks like a different proposition entirely. Santa Monica isn’t just reskinning the existing formula – the studio describes combat built around “hyper-responsive” fluid movement with seamless ground-to-air combos, explicitly distinct from Kratos‘ bruising, deliberate style. More importantly, Faye was already the most narratively loaded character in the modern trilogy without a single line of in-game dialogue. The mythology-blending scope and afterlife setting give the studio room to finally cash in on years of deliberate setup without being trapped by Kratos‘ weight. The risk is real, but the foundation is unusually solid for a protagonist switch of this scale.
What remains unclear is whether Kratos appears in any playable capacity, or at all – the trailer positions Faye as aware of his actions, but his role in the story is unconfirmed. There’s also no release window beyond insider reports suggesting a tentative 2027 target, and earlier pre-reveal leaks described a dual-protagonist structure involving Tyr that hasn’t been confirmed or denied by the studio. Whether the game expands across multiple mythologies or stays rooted in Norse lore also remains an open question despite the trailer’s broader scope. The next concrete signal to watch is Sony‘s next major showcase, where a release window and further gameplay details are the logical next step.
Are you on board with Faye taking the lead, or does a God of War without Kratos feel like a harder sell than Santa Monica is letting on? And does the afterlife framing and mythology-blending scope make this sound like the most exciting entry in the series yet – or a creative gamble that could go either way? Sound off in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more God of War and PlayStation coverage.
