The Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg officially confirms that he is not playing the lead of Nathan Drake in a movie for Naughty Dog's Uncharted video games.

As of late, the Uncharted movie has encountered several instances of being held up in the production process, with one of them being Sony's removal of the film from the release schedule. Now it seems as if the movie based on Naughty Dog's series of action-adventure games is becoming even less likely as making it to theatrical release, as the Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg recently declared that he is no longer attached to star in the franchise's lead role of Nathan Drake.

Wahlberg admitted to being out of the running for the part of Nathan Drake during an interview with We Got This Covered for his upcoming movie Patriots Day, in which the actor plays the role of Sgt. Tommy Saunders, who joins first responders and other investigators to find suspects in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. Although Wahlberg had been rumored as being a part of the Uncharted movie's production for more than five years, it seems as if he won't be taking on the persona of the treasure hunter, with the actor saying, "As of now, no, I'm not attached."

Once the new director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) was brought in to direct the project earlier this year, there had been lingering questions about whether or not Wahlberg might still be involved. The actor had initially talked about potentially being in Uncharted some years ago when director David O. Russell had been attached to oversee the film.

Levy had previously confirmed that he has several different actors in mind for the role of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie, but he didn't reveal any specific names. Of course, with Mark Wahlberg out of the picture, it's really anyone's guess at this point.

Naturally, gaming fans would love to see the actor who portrays Drake in the Uncharted games, with Nolan North taking up the mantle being an obvious, if not perfect choice, but it remains to be seen if that will happen. However, there's even the likelihood of someone completely unexpected being chosen to shake up fans' idea of the character, with Johnny Knoxville being an option, especially since the character was initially modeled after the Jackass star.

While the casting for Nathan Drake is still up in the air, Uncharted fans can at least take comfort in the fact that Levy recently discussed the tone of the film to say that the script from writer Joe Carnahan (The Grey) offers "really cool and unique plot." Although that's very little to go on in terms of what the story will contain, fans can at least agree that there is plenty of solid source material that the screenwriters can draw from for inspiration.

No release date is set for the Uncharted movie, but Levy has declared that he hopes to have filming wrapped sometime in 2017.