Developer Santa Monica Studio revealed a little over a week ago that its own version of Thor that is slated to appear in the upcoming PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 title God of War Ragnarok will look a bit different than other iterations of the character that we have seen in popular media. Notably, Ragnarok’s take on Thor represents an almost night and day difference between the version played by Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, those who created this new take on Thor have revealed why they opted to go in a different direction. 

Speaking to Game Informer, God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams was asked about Santa Monica Studio’s iteration of Thor and what he was inspired by. In short, Williams explained that they wanted to create a version of Thor that was more accurate to Norse mythology. “Well, I don’t know, we just want him to be a big boy, you know. There’s Marvel’s interpretation of him is one thing. It’s interesting. We wanted to, you know, go a little deeper into the mythology itself,” Williams said. He went on to say that even though Thor has a bit larger of a gut compared to the MCU version of Thor, this added weight is almost more reflective of real strongmen. “They have a presence immediately. And it’s not always because of muscles. They’re just like that is a wall of a human being, you know. So this is a wall of a God, you know, and that’s why it was very important,” he explained.

Adding his own take on the situation, God of War director Cory Barlog said that he personally loves the look of Thor that the studio has come up with. “I think there’s something so fantastic in that that not everything needs to be this glistening muscle hulk kind of concept to still be fantastic and powerful and intimidating,” Barlog added. All in all, it definitely sounds like those working on the game are huge fans of the version of Thor that they have created, and hopefully, once fans see the character in action within God of War Ragnarok, they’ll feel the same way.