The latest poster for Columbia Pictures’ Uncharted movie just dropped, stirring up excitement among fans and inspiring jokes about Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Uncharted, a film based on the video game franchise of the same name, has been in the works since 2008. It didn’t actually cast its two main actors — Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg — until years later, however, and didn’t fully enter principal photography until 2020. Since it was announced, hype around the film has only grown. The latest poster stirred up yet another wave of excitement among viewers, many of whom couldn’t help but crack jokes about Marvel and Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The poster, revealed by the official Fandango Twitter account, shows Holland’s young Nathan Drake standing front and center, gazing into the distance with a look of quiet contemplation on his face. A few feet behind and to the right, Wahlberg’s Sully stands in a slightly more closed pose ahead of what appears to be the ruins of a long-abandoned ship.
The upcoming film will star Holland as a younger version of the video game’s primary protagonist, providing filmmakers with the opportunity to create their own story while still setting it in the Uncharted world.
Holland is also set to star as Spider-Man in No Way Home, which is currently days away from release. His presence front and center on the Uncharted poster prompted jokes about some of the many fan theories still swirling around No Way Home.
“Yes, you can see 3 Spider-Mens,” one person joked, poking fun at theories that three separate Spider-Men will appear in No Way Home. Other users cracked jokes about Spider-Man revealing his true identity as Nathan Drake, while fans of the video game franchise shared concerns that the film would fall short of its beloved source material.
Numerous people protested the film’s casting, repeating complaints that Nathan Fillion would have suited Drake far better than Holland. Others were mostly upset over Wahlberg’s casting as Sully, a character that many fans feel he doesn’t encapsulate at all.
Past concerns over the quality of the film and jokes about No Way Home, a small portion of commenters shared genuine excitement for the film. It seems that die-hard fans of the video games are reluctant to have faith in the film —reasonable considering how terrible most video game adaptations are — but still plan to see it in theaters. Complaints that Holland doesn’t look like Drake are also fair, but neglect to consider the fact that this film is intended as a prequel. Of course he doesn’t look like Drake from the games, he is supposed to portray a much younger version of the character. Casting an age-appropriate actor would have ruined this aim.
Despite all the nay-sayers, hype around the film is still high. People on Reddit as well as Twitter can’t help but gush about the 2022 release, and even irritable fans of the franchise seem set to give it a shot when it hits theaters.
Uncharted will arrive in U.S. theaters on Feb. 18, 2022.