God of War’s Kratos Had a Much Different Name Until the Pizza Jokes Started Pouring In

Skip to content Add Us On Google God of War‘s Kratos, despite only playing a supporting role in the next game, is one of PlayStation’s main mascots. His iconic status is a blend of the overall quality of the series, eye-catching character design, and the hero’s unique name. However, Kratos wasn’t originally the name Santa Monica Studio had in mind and only felt compelled to change it after all the pizza jokes started rolling in.

Former game director, lead designer, and writer on the 2005 God of War, David Jaffe, shared this story through a post on social media spotted by IGN. In the two-minute clip, Jaffe explained how Kratos’ original name was “Dominus” way back in 2002. While he has shared this tidbit multiple times before, he went more detail into why it changed. He explained that every time the name came up, someone would inevitably make a joke about Domino’s Pizza, a pizza chain that originated in the United States. Even though Jaffe said he loved the name because of its dominance and brutality, the rampant goofing off and references to a fast food chain’s slogans caused him to reconsider.

“I just loved that name,” said Jaffe. “I thought it was great. But then something started to happen at the studio. The people on the team started making Domino’s Pizza jokes. Every single time someone said ‘Dominus,’ someone inevitably would yell out ’30 minutes or free’ or ‘Get the door, it’s Dominus’ or talk about the f-cking [former Domino’s mascot] Noid. After about the 50th time, the writing was on the wall: Dominus was dead, and we needed a new name for our hero.”

I won't lie: there are nights I lie awake and wonder, 'What COULD have been?!?!' Man, @dominos, we coulda had it all! We coulda had little mini deep dish pizzas in the shape of the BLADES OF CHAOS!!! By the Gods, what did I do?!?! pic.twitter.com/OlpwbvfEbi

After the many jabs at the soon-to-be juggernaut, someone printed out a huge list of Greek male baby names for Jaffe to go through. Holding the list up to the camera, he said he highlighted the ones that stuck out, which included names like Julius, Parthenios, and Maksym, the latter of which he said was evidence he came to work “legally drunk.”

However, none of the names had the sauce the team was looking for. This was until former senior product marketing manager Susan Panico pitched the name “Kratos.” The team loved it, so it stuck around. And coincidentally, Kratos was on the aforementioned list of names Jaffe went through, but it didn’t stick out to him. He said this silly oversight was just another case of successful games being a mix of luck, timing, and marketing.

As shown by the behind-the-scenes videos included in the original game, Kratos went through many iterations before the team settled on his final design, which it found by stripping more and more armor off him. This latest detail just gives more insight into that process.

But dying in the God of War franchise is never permanent. There was a Dominus skin in God of War 3 based on the armor he was wearing when he swore his life to Ares. Given how this armor is in a flashback and how Dominus was an early name for Kratos, it seems likely this was on purpose.

What do you think of Kratos’ old name? Tell us in the comments.