It’s been a long and winding road for the Uncharted series to find its Nathan Drake and head to the big screen. But in the end, Sony Pictures ended up nabbing its very own Spider-Man, Tom Holland, for the role. In the upcoming adventure film based on the Naughty Dog video game franchise, Drake’s origins will be explored, including how the treasure hunter came to befriend Mark Wahlberg’s Sully. The wait is almost over for fans and possibly bittersweet for those who wanted to see Nathan Fillion in the role.
Back in 2009, when an Uncharted movie was first in development, Nathan Fillion expressed interest in starring as the lead and began a campaign on Twitter that got fans stoked about the Firefly actor taking over the role. Over a decade later, with the movie lead by Tom Holland shot and set to come out next year, Fillion shared his thoughts on what became of the video game adaptation:
My only regret is that we had to wait so very, very long for someone to do something so we could actually see some Uncharted stuff. Other than that, I think all my boxes have been checked. I'm pretty excited to see what they do with that. I love movies and those guys have never let us down; Tom Holland, come on, Mark Wahlberg. We're gonna have a great time.
There’s no hard feelings from Nathan Fillion as he promotes his role in The Suicide Squad with Gaming Bible, which hits theaters and HBO Max next weekend. The actor gave the thumbs up for Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg and shared his own interest in checking out the movie come 2022. Of course, fans won’t forget the 2018 fan film he starred in that impressed former Uncharted director-to-be Shawn Levy, who ended up making Free Guy instead.
At the time of the fan film’s release, there were even whispers that it could turn into a TV show following the fan film picking up viewership at the time. To prove how long it has taken for the Uncharted movie to be made, at first, Mark Wahlberg was going to play Nathan Drake, and later he was recast as the lead’s mentor Sully.
Along the way, a ton of filmmakers have been attached to the project, including David O. Russell, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, Dan Trachtenberg and Travis Knight. The movie’s helm finally landed on Ruben Fleischer, who has also made the Zombieland movies, 2018’s Venom and 30 Minutes Or Less.
You can see Nathan Fillion next in The Suicide Squad as The Detachable Kid alongside Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena and company. Uncharted is expected to come to theaters on February 9, 2022.
