Now that God of War

has been officially announced we’ve been presented with one huge challenge: who should play Kratos? One of the most iconic video game characters of recent years, Kratos is pretty much instantly recognizable. He has to be played by the right sort of actor if this film is going to work, so we’ve stepped up to offer five stars that we’d love to see as the Spartan general!

Vin Diesel

Vin has got just the right look for the role of Kratos; He’s big, he’s shaven-headed and as anyone who’s seen Chronicles of Riddick can confirm, he’s good with blades. He’s got experience on his side too; definitely one of our favorites for the role.

Jason Statham

This Brit star has been an action movie staple for a while now. He’s the master of crazy action vehicles The Transporter, Crank and his latest film The Expendables 2

. All well and good, but we’re so used to seeing him with a gun in hand; could he really carry off a sword-wielding role? Also at 5’9” he’s the shortest of our choicesthough I definitely wouldn’t want to mess with him, regardless.

Jason Momoa

How about another, very different Jason. We’ve seen Momoa play Conan in the recent remake and Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. He’s got muscle, along with sword and sorcery experience on his side but would he be willing to shave off his locks for this role? He also hasn’t quite got the big name draw of our other stars.

Tom Hardy

Hardy got ripped for his part in Bronson and then decided to get even bigger for his role in MMA film Warrior, and then bigger still for The Dark Knight Rises

. If you’ve seen those films then you know he’s got the ability to play ‘seriously psychotic’ when he so chooses. He’d definitely bring a bit of method acting class to the role.

Dwayne Johnson

Those other guys are great, and any one of them would be a thoroughly decent Kratos, but this here is the man I really want to see take the role. He’s huge, ripped and a versatile actor. Anyone who remembers his wrestling days knows that he can do obnoxious, arrogant and most definitely angry, and he’s even got a strange kind of nobility to him in films like The Scorpion King. If anyone is listening: Dwayne Johnson is Kratos!

Or is he? Those are our top five but who would you like to see play the lead in what promises to be one of the bloodiest video game to film adaptions of all time?