We knew the Uncharted movie was going to try something a little different when it came to adapting the popular video game franchise into a film. Rather than going for a straight adaptation, the movie is set to be a prequel to the game series, and Tom Holland is set to play the lead role of Nathan Drake, with Mark Wahlberg on board to play Victor "Sully" Sullivan. We now have the first look at the two characters together, and it has to be said, this version of Uncharted certainly looks...different.
If you look at the image above you'll see how Nathan Drake and his best friend/father figure Sully look throughout most of the Uncharted games, though we actually do see Nathan Drake as a young boy at one point, a bit younger than Tom Holland will probably be playing him. Still, you can see how the younger versions of the characters will grow to become these older men in the game. In this still (via the NY Times), it has to be said that Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg don't look like Drake and Sully so much as they look like... Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg.
At the end of the day there's no real need for the actors to look like their video game counterparts, there's nothing vital to the characters based in the way they look, but it is interesting that apparently no thought was given to doing anything to attempt to make them look like their avatar alter egos. Maybe Wahlberg's character grows a mustache by the end of the movie? In the end, the look doesn't matter. While fans of the video game will likely be a little put off by the lack of resemblance, the Uncharted movie certainly wants to be a hit with everybody, not simply fans of the game franchise, and if they make an exciting adventure movie then audiences will enjoy it whatever the characters look like.
At the same time, if no consideration was given to making the characters look like the characters that inspired them, one has to wonder what other changes might be in store for Nathan Drake in his film incarnation. With the movie being a prequel it certainly has more room to experiment and try new things. There's no need to include other characters from the games and as long as the plot is an Indiana Jones-style adventure for some incredibly valuable lost object, then the story will work as an Uncharted story.
And while this image doesn't give us much, it certainly does give us Nathan Drake and Sully wandering through some candle-lit castle or church or something similar, looking for something. It feels like a moment we could see in an Indiana Jones movie, and so at least that part of Uncharted feels intact.
We'll get a better idea of what the Uncharted movie has in store for us when we see the first trailer. With the movie set for release in February 2022, that will likely be sometime this fall.
