Santa Monica Studio spent nearly twenty years building the most recognisable angry bald man in gaming. Now it is handing you a completely different controller.
God of War Laufey was revealed at the June 2026 State of Play and finally got its release date at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25. It is the first game in the series where Kratos is not the playable character. Instead you play as Faye – his wife, Atreus’s mother, and the woman whose funeral pyre opens God of War (2018).
Here is everything confirmed so far.
The fast facts
- Release date: February 16, 2027
- Platform: PlayStation 5 only – and yes, there is a physical disc
- Developer: Santa Monica Studio
- Game director: Ariel Lawrence
- Protagonist: Faye, also known as Laufey the Just (Deborah Ann Woll)
- Setting: the Everywhen, the afterlife of the gods
- Timeline: runs parallel to God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök
The premise: the story starts at the funeral
Every God of War fan remembers the opening of the 2018 game. Kratos fells a tree. He builds a pyre. He burns his wife. Then he picks up her ashes and his son and walks into the worst road trip in mythology.
Laufey picks up at that exact moment – from the other side of the fire.
Faye wakes up somewhere she was not supposed to be. She spent years quietly laying plans to protect Kratos and Atreus, and from inside this strange new land she discovers those plans are now at risk. Something in the afterlife is unpicking the work she did while she was alive, and she is the only one in a position to go and fix it.
It is a genuinely smart bit of design. Faye has always been the most important character in modern God of War and the one you never actually got to meet. Every major beat of the last two games – the journey to Jötunheim, the prophecy, Atreus’s giant name, the Leviathan Axe itself – traces back to decisions she made before the camera ever started rolling. This is the game that finally lets her hold the sword instead of the plot.
The Everywhen is not Valhalla
The setting is a new realm called the Everywhen, and Santa Monica describes it as the birthplace and endpoint to which all magic returns – a transcendent place sitting above the afterlives mortals get sent to.
Put plainly: Helheim and Valhalla are addresses. The Everywhen is the landlord.
The important part is that it is not Norse-exclusive. Gods, monsters and beings from mythologies across the world wash up there, along with things native to the realm itself, and they are all fighting each other for a share of it. It is the first time the series has thrown multiple pantheons into the same room since Kratos left Greece, and it gives the studio an excuse to put almost anything on screen.
Faye does not play like Kratos at all
Kratos fights like a man moving a wardrobe up a flight of stairs. Every swing has weight, commitment and consequences. Faye is built on the opposite principle.
She carries a legendary sword guarded by an enchanted ribbon, and the combat is designed around speed, control and keeping your momentum going by chaining attacks. She can move between ground and air without the action stopping to let her land, which is something Kratos has never been able to do.
The signature mechanic is the golden palm. Faye is the Golden Hand of the Jötnar, and inside the Everywhen that ability is amplified: she can strike an enemy hard enough to knock the soul clean out of the body. The fight then splits into two targets. You can attack the soul directly, or launch it into other enemies and start building combos out of the pieces.
Santa Monica has described the approach as the modern God of War combat system with the old school DNA of the Greek era injected back into it. If you have been quietly missing the days when Kratos could juggle a room full of enemies in the air, this is aimed squarely at you.
Phranque and Rue, the strangest companions in series history
Faye does not travel alone, but her companions are not a sullen teenager with a bow.
Phranque is a cosmic cube. A talking, gelatinous, relentlessly loyal cube, voiced by Jack Quaid – who also performed the full motion capture for it. Read that sentence again and then try to picture the session.
Rue is the sentient enchanted ribbon wrapped around Faye’s sword, voiced by Perlina Lau. She is both a character and, functionally, part of your weapon.
“Boy” is dead as a concept. We are firmly in new territory.
The confirmed cast
- Deborah Ann Woll as Faye – reprising the role she voiced in Ragnarök, and best known to a lot of people as Karen Page in Netflix’s Daredevil
- Jack Quaid as Phranque
- Perlina Lau as Rue
Those are the only three names officially attached so far. More are expected closer to launch.
Christopher Judge did appear on the Comic-Con stage, where he talked about being reluctant to take the role of Kratos thirteen years ago, and described Faye as the reason Kratos ever turned toward hope, forgiveness and self-improvement in the first place. He is returning as Kratos for the sequel.
A Kratos game is already announced
The other Comic-Con reveal: Cory Barlog confirmed that the next Kratos-led God of War is in development, arrives after Laufey, and connects directly to Faye’s story.
So Laufey is not a spin-off parked to the side of the timeline. It is setup. Whatever Faye is doing in the Everywhen is going to matter to Kratos, and the studio has told you that in advance.
Do you need to play the older games first?
No. Laufey is built to work as a standalone story.
That said, almost every emotional beat here is going to land harder if you know who these people are. If you are catching up, our complete God of War story breakdown covers the 2018 game, and our Ragnarök ending explained picks up from there. Both games are on PS5, PS4 and PC.
What we still do not know
- Pre-order details, pricing and special editions – none announced yet
- Whether Atreus appears in any form
- The full cast beyond the three confirmed names
- How long the game is, and whether it is open in the way Ragnarök was
- Any PC plans – and right now there are none
February 16, 2027. Mark it.
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