Tom Holland’s Failed James Bond Pitch Earned Him A Big Surprise
Tom Holland's Bond pitch achieved something he never expected!
This article is more than 2 years old
Tom Holland is currently Sony’s golden boy. The young actor netted them their biggest opening weekend ever, along with their highest-grossing movie ever with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Clearly, they like Holland and want to keep putting him in their movies. That’s why when Holland pitched the idea for a James Bond origin story in a meeting with Sony, he got a big consolation prize instead. This meeting is what started the conversation to cast him as a young Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted film.
Tom Holland told Total Film about the conversation in a recent interview. While the idea of a Bond origin story with a younger take on the character didn’t really resonate with the Bond studios, Sony liked the idea for one of their most well-known video game IPs. If you’re unfamiliar with the Uncharted series, it’s a hugely popular Playstation-exclusive franchise of games where you play as treasure hunter and adventurer Nathan Drake. The games are renowned for their cinematic story, making them a perfect fit for the big screen. There’s lots of brawling, gunplay, puzzle-solving, globe-trotting, and historical intrigue. If you like Indiana Jones, you’d probably enjoy the story of Nathan Drake.
Nathan Drake does share some similarities with James Bond, in the sense that they’re both suave, skilled with weapons, and action-orientated characters. But the similarities pretty much end there. Nathan Drake is a lot rougher around the edges and more humourous than Bond. Tom Holland has had plenty of practice making quips as Spider-Man, so this should be a pretty natural transition for him. Though the version of Drake in the games is older than Holland, this is meant to be an origin story, so it’s likely that Sony is looking to have Holland grow into the role and turn this into a movie franchise if it brings in enough money.
Along with Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, Uncharted has some other actors playing the familiar faces from the games. Mark Wahlberg will be playing Drake’s mentor and friend Victor Sullivan aka Sully. Sophia Ali is playing fellow adventurer and potential love interest Chloe Frazer. Antonio Banderas is also joining the action in a villainous role as a rival treasure hunter. It remains to be seen if Drake’s other main love interest, journalist Elena Fisher, will appear in this movie or if she’s being saved for potential sequels. The film is being directed by Ruben Fleischer and is written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Rafe Judkins.
While we won’t be seeing Tom Holland as James Bond anytime soon, his adventuring and action days definitely aren’t over. It’s hard to see Uncharted not being a success since it has a built-in video game fanbase, fans of Holland, and people who are generally interested in Indiana Jones-type blockbusters likely buying tickets. If this is the case, we’ll see plenty more of Tom Holland in the role of Nathan Drake in the future. If you want to check Tom Holland out in his latest action-adventure role, you can see Uncharted in theaters on February 18, 2022.
