This story is going to have spoilers for Uncharted, so stop reading now if you haven’t yet seen the film, and want to avoid story details.
Based on the success of Tom Holland’s video-game adaptation Uncharted over its opening weekend, where it racked up an impressive $51 million over a four-day holiday, the chances of Uncharted 2 getting a greenlight have drastically increased. And that makes sense, because Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer definitely included some major hints about where the new action franchise could go in the end-credits scenes of this movie. One character, in particular, showed up in shadowy silhouette, and fans of the Uncharted video games know that we are looking at Sam – the older brother to Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), who our hero believes to be dead.
During a recent press event for Uncharted, Ruben Flesicher appeared as a guest on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, and spoke about the inclusion of a surprisingly alive Sam. When asked if he knew an actor who would step into the role, Fleischer explained:
I've definitely got a list of actors or people who would bring that character to life, if we're lucky enough to do a sequel. So I'm definitely thinking in that direction. As to when we'll see Sam again, I couldn't promise that it'd be in the next movie, but it was really important to me that if we're gonna bring that character back, that in this film, we acknowledge the fact he's alive. I thought it would be really odd if Nate leaves the movie thinking his brother's dead, and then all of a sudden, he finds out, oh, he is alive. And I didn't want that kind of reality for our movie series. So, I thought it was important to make sure the audience knows that he's out there somewhere. Nate doesn't know. Someday he'll find out himself, and meet him again.
Samuel Drake appeared in the video games as a playable character in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. But he’s always been pivotal to Nate’s development and origin, having pulled Nate into the world of globetrotting treasure seekers. Ruben Fleischer and the Uncharted screenwriters use Sam as a teenager in the flashbacks of the new movie (where he is played on screen by Rudy Pankow). And now that we, the audience, knows the character is alive, it’s a thread that storytellers can pull if and when Uncharted 2 starts to roll along.
We can’t say at this point that Uncharted 2 definitely is happening, and even if it gets greenlit, we don’t know when it might start filming. Tom Holland has said that he plans to take a break from acting in the very near future, possibly because the stunt work that he pulled off in Uncharted was the most difficult work of his career. Also, there’s a Fred Astaire movie in the works for Holland to lead, as well as more Spider-Man movies to eventually film. Where might Uncharted 2 land on the To Do list of the very busy actor?
Uncharted is now in theaters, and received a pretty solid review from us. Also, we also keep a running list of 2022’s upcoming movies, so you know what films you can plan to watch next.
