The recent God of War-related announcements—a remake of the original God of War trilogy and the release of God of War Sons of Sparta—have been followed up by plenty of rumors about another mysterious God of War project being in the works. A new datamine has indicated that this new title might involve the Ancient Egyptian pantheon in a major way.
According to the God of War Ragnarök subreddit, hidden cutscenes have been discovered in the game’s files that can’t be accessed through the course of play. The poster—TheMorse_—has noted that this is quite similar to yet another hidden cutscene from 2018’s God of War that essentially served as the opening to Ragnarök’s story.
One of these new cutscenes seems to revolve around “beings from the higher plane” having a conversation about Odin and Atreus. Among these beings is also Athena. Another one revolves around Atreus traveling to meet beings from other pantheons with someone named “Mau”, who has been described as being like Groot from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as they can only say their own name. Much like Rocket Raccoon, Atreus is also seemingly able to understand “Mau”. It is worth noting that the name is the Egyptian word for cat, and has often been depicted as being one of the manifestations of Ra—the Sun God.
As for the cutscene featuring Athena, some interesting pieces of dialogue have been uncovered. Among other things, she says, “One failed us. One rejected us,” and “We have a problem”. While it is unclear who exactly Athena might be referring to, considering the events of God of War Ragnarök, the one who failed them was likely Odin, while the rejector was like Atreus.
While this might sound like little more than rumors revolving around cutscenes that were initially created but cancelled out as the game’s story went through changes, it is worth noting that, much like TheMorse_ pointed out, these have quite a few similarities to the hidden cutscenes found in 2018’s God of War. Those files revolved around Atreus killing the bear—as he does early in Ragnarök’s story—and sneaking out to see the shrines, culminating in his discovery that Tyr is alive.
Industry insider shinobi602 had previously indicated that this new God of War project is being helmed by Cory Barlog, and is slated for launch “around 2028”. The title will also seemingly be revealed in the middle of this year, with the insider predicting, “Probably May State of Play or the summer Keighley’s (SGF). As of now, I don’t know. If not by then, then they’ve either pushed the release out further or doing a shorter reveal to release.”
A report from back in September had strong indications of Kratos traveling to Egypt as part of the next game’s story. Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson had said that Kratos would be adding curved Egyptian-styled sword to his arsenal, bringing up comparisons to Prince of Persia. In a more recent conversation, however, he said that “there is scythe in the game as well.”