God of War fans are reacting positively to a new photo of Ryan Hurst in costume as Kratos, as Prime Video seeks to secure his replacement.

Prime Video dramatically parted ways with Hurst last month and said it would recast the title role in its God of War series, as Hurst had sustained a bicep injury which required him to undergo surgery.

The announcement came after an initial look at Hurst in character as Kratos, published by Prime Video, which drew widespread ridicule. The image was mocked for its CGI-like backdrop, fake-looking props, and Kratos' unfortunate pose — which God of War creator David Jaffe memorably described as looking "like he was s***ing in the woods." Hurst later issued a cryptic response that fans shouldn't "believe everything they see on the internet," which some took to mean that Kratos' design was still a work-in-progress.

While Prime Video may have hoped Kratos' recasting would draw a line under all of that, Hurst himself has now set tongues wagging with a topless pic of himself, posted to Instagram Stories (via X / Twitter user @TheGameVerse). Fans have said that the photo is a huge improvement on the image released officially by Prime Video itself, and that the streamer had acted too quickly in hunting for a replacement star.

Of course, Prime Video itself has argued that it has a production schedule to meet, which Hurst's surgery would have impacted. But the company has also reportedly acted fast to line up a replacement, with Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista now eyed as a leading contender.

"Amazon made the biggest mistake by not waiting for him to heal or simply asking if he can still do it," one fan has now written in a lengthy thread on X, after seeing Hurst's own photo. "There's no one that can be a better Kratos than Ryan Hurst."

"Seeing him in The Odyssey made me believe he can pull it off I don’t see why they want to rush this," said another. "They did him DIRTY with that first pic," said a third.

"That first official photo really didn't do him any favors, THIS should have been our first look," added another fan. "So it was just a bad photo shoot from Amazon... man looks fabulous in this," said yet another.

While the image is likely months old, the timing of it being shared publicly by Hurst is interesting, just as the report about Bautista's potential involvement is also circling. Hurst made no other comment alongside the image, though tagged it with Johnny Cash's track "The Man Comes Around." Said one fan: "He basically said 'this's what yall gonna be missing on.'"

While we wait for more news on Prime Video's series, it's worth reading up on the multiple new God of War games that are also in the works. God of War Laufey is slated to release this coming February, while a new Kratos-led God of War game is also in development, alongside remakes of the series' original trilogy.

Image credit: Prime Video.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social