Looks Like Uncharted Is Hitting More Setbacks Due To Tom Holland's Spider-Man Commitments
While he’s unquestionably best known for playing Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, naturally Tom Holland has his hands in various other cinematic endeavors, such as the now-released Spies in Disguise and upcoming movies like Dolittle, Onward and Cherry. Holland has also been attached for several years to star as Nathan Drake in the frequently-delayed Uncharted movie, and now it’s looking like we’ll have to wait even longer for this video game adaptation due to Holland’s commitments as the current live action Web-Slinger.
Because Tom Holland is lined up to shoot the Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel next, this means that Uncharted’s principal photography will need to be delayed. As a result, Deadline reports that only will Uncharted by pushed further back on Sony Pictures’ calendar (i.e. December 18, 2020 is off the table), but director Travis Knight is also expected to depart.
Known for his work at the stop-motion animated studio Laika and for helming the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, Travis Knight was announced to be directing Uncharted back in September. Alas, he now joins the ranks of other directors who’ve left Uncharted, like Shawn Levy and Dan Trachtenberg, since it first entered into development more than a decade ago.
Despite yet another delay and the departure of another director, Sony is still looking to move forward with Uncharted, and is now looking for a new release date and for someone to take Travis Knight’s place. Tom Holland is still attached to bring Nathan Drake to life, as is Mark Wahlberg, who earlier in the decade was set to play Drake, but will now play the main character’s mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan.
So for all you Uncharted fans out there, this is yet another setback on the long-winding road to seeing Nathan Drake’s adventuring brought to the big screen. Despite Sony’s claim that it’s still keen on releasing Uncharted, with each setback that hits this project, I can’t help wondering if this movie will ever be made, or if it’ll go the way of The Crow remake, another project that rested at Sony.
But for the Spider-Man fans, Uncharted’s loss is your gain, as Tom Holland is set to shoot the next Spider-Man movie in summer 2020. Both of Holland’s Spider-Man movies have been critical and commercial winners, with this year’s Far From Home not only being the first Spidey movie to cross the $1 billion mark, but also becoming Sony’s highest-grossing movie ever, knocking Skyfall from the top spot.
While a Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel has been in the cards for years, things did get complicated last summer when Disney and Sony failed to come up with a new financial arrangement concerning the Wall-Crawler, resulting in Sony planning to remove the hero from the MCU. However, thanks to various factors, including Tom Holland’s drunken phone call with Disney CEO Bob Iger, the two studios managed to patch things up, and Spidey will sticking around this shared universe for the foreseeable future.
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No specific details for the third MCU-set Spider-Man movie have been revealed yet, though Far From Home definitely left Peter Parker in a complicated predicament when he was framed and unmasked by Mysterio through doctored footage of the Elemental incident in London. Zendaya will reprise her role as MJ, and Jon Watts is expected to return to direct.
The next Spider-Man movie will swing into theaters on July 16, 2021, and Tom Holland’s Spidey is also expected to appear in another MCU movie down the line. As for Uncharted, we here at CinemaBlend will keep you updated on its continuing development.
Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.