Because sometimes dreams really do come true,Nathan Fillionjust made his wise-cracking, peril-escaping debut as Nate Drake, the star of theUnchartedvideo game series. Because life is also cruel and often unfair, Fillion’s performance is completely unofficial and unaffiliated from Naughty Dog or Sony, taking place in a 15-minute fan-film directed byAllan Ungarand written by Ungar andJesse Wheeler.
But still! Fans of the franchise have been clamoring for a live-action take fronted by Fillion practically since the 2007 release ofUncharted: Drake’s Fortune, mostly because its lead character—a modern-day Indiana Jones with a bit ofChris Pratt’s Star-Lord thrown in—kind of looks, sounds, and acts exactly like theFireflystar, despite being voiced byNolan North.
SonyannouncedanUnchartedadaptation from directorShawn Levylast May—starringSpider-Man: HomecomingnuggetTom Holland—which would build around a sequence from 2011’sUncharted: Drake’s Deceptionthat followed a young Nathan Drake in his pre-treasure hunter pick-pocket days.
ButUncharteddiehards have almost everything they could’ve asked for right there in Ungar’s short film. Fillion is as spot-on as advertised as a Drake quipping his way through a brutal beating and video game physics firefight. Joining the fun isStephen Lang—on loan from filming the next 14 or soAvatarfilms—as Drake’s cigar-chomping partner-in-crime Sully andEpisodesstarMircea Monroeas the treasure hunter’s badass photojournalist wife Elena.
Does this delightful taste of what could be mean anything, in the long run? Probably not! Hollywood is a fickle beast that does not like to be told what to do. But, on the other hand, that “leaked"Deadpoolfootage did practically birth two full-length features and counting.
Time will tell. Until then, check out the fan-film below—which Fillion, both a hero and a gentleman, also co-produced himself—and dream of that sweet, sweet alternate reality where a Fillion feature-length exists.
(You can also check out more in-depth video game coverage over here atCollider Games.)
