10 Video Game Characters You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People
3. Kratos (God Of War) - Edward Norton
God of War's Kratos is one of the most distinctive-looking video game protagonists of all time, yet the series' creator David Jaffe found inspiration in the most unlikely of real-life sources.
In a 2010 interview, Jaffe confirmed that Kratos was primarily based off Edward Norton's performance in American History X. He said:
"It took a long time to figure out what Kratos would look like, and ultimately we took inspiration from Edward Norton in American History X, when he played a Nazi. There's this scene in which the cops arrest him and you just see how buffed and built he's gotten. I showed that to the artist and I said, 'Okay, that sense of power and aggression that you just see in his face, can we somehow take that, the essence of what he's exuding, and somehow turn that into a character that fits into this Greek mythology world?”
In a more recent interview with Retro Gamer, Jaffe added that it was his ex-wife who made him pay attention to Norton, after gauging her reaction to his presence in the film. She said:
"I hate to say this because he's a scumbag Nazi, but [Norton's] f**king hot."
And like that, Jaffe set the basic design profile for Kratos, which helped make him one of the most popular video game "heroes" of the last 20 years.