Santa Monica Studio has revealed God of War Laufey, the next entry in the series, centered for the first time on Faye rather than Kratos. The game is now wishlistable on the PlayStation Store with no release date attached, and it marks the first time God of War has built a mainline entry around Faye, full name Laufey, previously known as the Golden Hand of the J\u00f6tnar and voiced again by Deborah Ann Woll.
The setup: Faye wakes up after her own funeral inside an afterlife called the Everywhen, described as the birthplace and endpoint of all magic, a realm where gods and creatures from multiple mythologies exist side by side, not always peacefully. The safeguards she quietly built to protect Kratos and Atreus are now unraveling, which is what pulls her back into the story. Santa Monica Studio's reveal materials tie this directly to Ragnar\u00f6k's Odin subplot, framing the Everywhen as the answer to the prophecy Odin spent that whole game chasing.
A new weapon, a new fighting style
The biggest mechanical shift is the weapon itself. Faye isn't picking up the Leviathan Axe or the Blades of Chaos. She's carrying a legendary sword given to her by Rue, an "enchanted ribbon guardian" voiced by Perlina Lau who was protecting the blade before Faye took it up. According to the studio, combat is built around speed, control, and momentum, stringing together combos across both ground and air without the movement ever fully stopping to reset.
Layered onto that is an amplified version of her soul-manipulation ability. As the Golden Hand of the J\u00f6tnar, Faye could already interact with souls; in the Everywhen, that extends to physically striking a soul out of an enemy's body with her golden palm, then attacking that detached soul directly or knocking it into other enemies to extend a combo. Santa Monica Studio's stated design goal is to blend the fluid, acrobatic movement of the Greek-era games with the character-driven world-building of the Norse era, and the soul-strike mechanic looks like the clearest expression of that so far.
Faye isn't going in alone. Phranque, described as a "curious cosmic cube," is voiced by Jack Quaid, and early hostile encounters include the gods Sekhmet and Begtse, both native to the Everywhen's crowded pantheon. Grace Orlady, Communications Director at Santa Monica Studio, Head of Creative Cory Barlog, and Game Director Ariel Lawrence all appear in the reveal's companion interviews alongside an unnamed Narrative Director and Lead Writer, walking through how Faye's story slots into the Ragnar\u00f6k timeline.
More looks at the Everywhen
The PlayStation Blog reveal post also carries a wider gallery beyond the header shot and the trailer itself, giving a broader look at the Everywhen's environments, Faye's redesigned silhouette, and the cast of gods and creatures she'll be moving through.
As with the trailer and the initial header image, none of these stills include actual combat footage.
The community is already speedrunning a game with no footage
None of that has stopped the usual reaction cycle. Corners of the God of War community are already trading theories about how the soul-strike mechanic might function as a route-planning tool, the kind of thing speedrunners typically chase once a combat system rewards chaining actions without a hard stop. Lore forums, meanwhile, are picking apart what it means that Faye is conscious and mobile in an afterlife she herself once described only in vague terms to Kratos.
All of it is speculation built on a reveal, not gameplay. Santa Monica Studio hasn't shown a frame of actual combat footage yet, and there's no window for when that changes.
Follow the original reporting as this develops.
