The Rock ruled out of playing Kratos in live action God of War series

Dwayne Johnson has been ruled out to play the titular character of Kratos in the upcoming live action adaptation for God of War.

In more recent times, live action video game adaptations have been elevated to serious movies and TV shows. It could be whimsical fun in Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog or action flicks like Mortal Kombat.

And not only that, but video game adaptations are even moving into serious drama. Who can forget HBO's The Last of Us, which gave us one of the most beautiful love stories ever committed to television in Bill and Frank's romance.

It's probably safe to say that the plot of Amazon Prime Video's God of War may not be a bit more action-focussed than The Last of Us, and there's certainly the scope for plenty of drama.

When the project was announced, rumors quickly began to circulate that Dwayne Johnson was involved in the talks about portraying Kratos.

With his previous roles in The Scorpion King and Black Adam, as well as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, it would certainly make sense.

However, director of the 2018 God of War game Cory Barlog has shut down these rumors, and confirmed that The Rock is not, in fact, in the running for the role.

YouTube / Playstation

Responding directly to the rumor on X (formally Twitter), the director simply said: "I have literally never heard anything about this."

For those unfamiliar, the plot is kicked off when the main character Kratos is tricked by Aries, the Ancient Greek god of war, into killing his own family.

Driven by vengeance he eventually kills Aries and then ascends to Mount Olympus to become the new god of war.

That's just the first game as well, as there are eight in total. Certainly plenty of fodder for the Amazon series to draw on!

The series will be an adaptation of the 2018 game. This is the first in the series which leaves the Ancient Greek setting behind and switches it for the norse pantheon.

YouTube / Playstation

So instead of Aries, Zeus, and Artemis we could be seeing more of the likes of Thor, Odin, and Loki. However, the project is currently early in the development process, and is still a very long way off completion.

Possible dates could include a year of 2024 for the main release. However, nothing has been confirmed more precisely than that at present.

While The Rock has been ruled out of playing Kratos, it's not clear if there are currently any frontrunners for the role at present.