Tom Holland Discovered Uncharted While Making Spider-Man: Homecoming, And He Was Hooked Right Away

Tom Holland recently discussed his history with the Uncharted series and how he became attached to the film. His story involves playing the Uncharted games in his trailer when making Spider-Man: Homecoming and enjoying it so much he had to be dragged back out to set.

Holland appeared on stage at Sony's CES 2022 briefing next to Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman and revealed that he first played the Uncharted games years ago when he was filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. Holland said he spent some of his downtime making Homecoming by playing Uncharted--and he was hooked.

"I'm a huge fan of the games. I hadn't discovered the games until I started making Spider Man: Homecoming. One of the luxuries of making these Spider-Man movies is they are made by Sony, and one of the luxuries of working for Sony is PlayStation," he said. "So all the actors' trailers were outfitted with the best TVs and the newest PlayStation. And one of the games they had given me was Uncharted."

"As soon as we started, we didn't stop. I remember them trying to drag me out of my trailer to come back to set. I was like, 'No, no, no, we're about to complete this mission--leave me alone.'"

As Holland's appreciation for the Uncharted games grew, he had a conversation with Rothman about making an Uncharted movie and starring in it. Part of that process was speaking with the teams at Naughty Dog and PlayStation to get a sense of the DNA of Uncharted to help translate it best on the big screen, Holland said.

The goal was to bring the character of Nathan Drake to life in a new way while also preserving what makes the character and the franchise so special and beloved. Naturally, the film will deviate from the games, but Holland believes it will honor the legacy of the games. "We didn't want to lose the essence of the games," he said.

Holland also briefly discussed the physical nature of the Uncharted movie shoot, saying it features many real stunts, which was a big change for him after the Spider-Man movies where much of the action is done through CGI. Holland previously spoke about how filming the Uncharted movie stunts left him "battered and bruised," and he joked with Rothman that Sony Pictures might have needed a hefty insurance premium.

Finally, Holland said the relationship between Nate and Sully (Mark Wahlberg) is the "heart and soul" of the movie, just as it is in the games. Holland was speaking during a Sony event, so he was always likely to speak positively about the project, for whatever that's worth.

Uncharted also stars Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, and Tati Gabrielle, and it releases on February 18 in theaters. A new clip was released this week during CES--watch it above.

The film went through six different directors before Sony hired Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland) to direct. Holland recently spoke about the revolving door of directors and how some of them had "completely different" ideas for what the movie should be.

As for the game series, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection--a new compilation package featuring Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy--comes to PS5 on January 28 and PC sometime later. Everyone who buys the game gets a ticket to see Uncharted.