God of War Creator Reveals Kratos Almost Had a Different Name Due to Domino's Pizza Jokes

Kratos, the iconic protagonist of God of War, nearly had a different name, all because of some relentless Domino's pizza jokes at Santa Monica Studio. David Jaffe, director of the original God of War trilogy, recently released a video explaining the naming dilemma.

Originally, the character was called "Dominus," a name Jaffe favored because it sounded dominant and powerful. Unfortunately, it also sounded like a pizza chain. "The team started making Domino's Pizza jokes," Jaffe said. "Every time someone said Dominus, someone would yell out, '30 minutes or free,' or, 'Get the door, it's Dominus.' After about the 50th time, it was clear: Dominus had to go, and we needed a new name for our hero."

A studio member printed out a large list of Ancient Greek baby names, and Jaffe went through with a yellow highlighter, marking the best ones. "The names I highlighted were not great," he admitted, citing Julius, Parthenius, and Maksym as examples. "Nothing felt just right. Eventually, our marketing lead, Susan Panico, came up with the name Kratos. She pitched it, we loved it, and it stuck."

Last year, Jaffe found the highlighted list among his old design documents. There, unhighlighted and hidden among the names, was Kratos. "We had Sony's biggest franchise hero in our hands the entire time and didn't even know it," he said. "Which goes to show how much of success in games is just luck, timing, and, in this case, marketing."

Jaffe has previously discussed Dominus and the creation of Kratos, but never with such detail. He had only mentioned that marketing disliked Dominus, but the pizza jokes are a new revelation.

The first God of War game released in 2005 for the PS2 and was a massive hit, spawning a franchise that has seen significant success over the past 20 years. The next game in the series, God of War: Laufey, is due out on PS5 in February 2027. Santa Monica Studio head of creative Cory Barlog has confirmed that an untitled new God of War game with Kratos returning as the protagonist is also in development.