Rick and Morty Become Kratos and Atreus for ‘God of War Ragnarök’ Promo
As season six of Adult Swim’s fan-favourite animated show begins, Rick and Morty’s creators have teamed up with Playstation to create a hilarious short that promotes Sony’s greatly anticipated release: ‘God of War Ragnarök’. Following up on ‘God of War’ - the heavily-lauded winner of The Game Awards’ ‘Game of the Year’ in 2018 - the upcoming sequel from Sony Interactive Entertainment, and its first-party developer Santa Monica Studio, has fans sharpening their axes, fletching their arrows and practising their war cries ahead of its November 9 release.
To boost the hype of gamers around the world, the ‘Rick and Morty x PlayStation’ video shows the titular eccentric, alcoholic scientist and his anxious grandson entering a portal to the Nine Realms, where adventure, danger and other unannounced game features await them. The comically irresponsible grandpa daubs his face with the iconic red paint of the God of War series’ protagonist Kratos, as he and Morty take on the roles of the vengeful god and his son Atreus. In this icy and hostile new world, the pair don’t have to go far before discovering a chest of weaponry and swiftly being attacked by a flock of birds.
Hilariously leaving his unfortunate ‘BOY!’ to perish, the spot comes to a close with Rick refusing to use Kratos’ iconic Leviathan Axe to defend poor Morty - fearing, of course, that its beauty may be tarnished by any blood.
This collaboration between the hugely popular animated sitcom and other brands is certainly not a new concept, however. Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s creation has partnered with several iconic brands before, most notably in the food and sportswear industries - in a Super Bowl spot for Pringles and a soccer star-studded spot for adidas football. The recent adidas collaboration from TBWA\NEBOKO, featured the sports brands’ football partners Vivianne Miedema, Mohamed Salah, Karim Benzema and Lionel Messi. The animated short promoted the new ‘X SPEEDPORTAL’ boots by showing Morty using the shoes to become an astronomically good player at the “international unlicensed cup” - before being brought back down to earth by his party-pooping-peepaw.
As well as these spots, the Rick and Morty team has also previously worked with Carls Jr, Old Spice, ‘Alien Covenant’ and Instagram - and even created ads for other video game products and titles including Hideo Kojima’s ‘Death Stranding’ (another title also published by Sony Interactive Entertainment) and the Playstation 5 itself.
Despite reported complaints from the God of War community that the marketing for the sequel has been somewhat lacklustre so far, this funny collab may help ease some of the most passionate fans’ worries. And, as for the Rick and Morty faithfuls, it adds yet another ‘when-worlds-collide’ project into the books - as the animation further cements itself firmly into pop culture for another year.
