OFF THE CHART

Tom Holland was mid-swing on SpiderMan: Homecoming when a PlayStation was craftily snuck into his trailer. There had been a handful of delays on the superhero set and Holland’s thumbs were being twiddled dry out of boredom, but when the actor retired that day, a surprise new console was waiting to keep those hands busy. A few games were bundled in, but only one stood out: Uncharted: A Thief’s End, the fourth instalment in the swashbuckling, Indiana Jones-esque series.

“I don’t know if that was [Sony Pictures chairman] Tom Rothman planting a seed early on, but I played that game and loved it,” an excited Holland tells Total Film, finally able to discuss the long-gestated film at length.

However, despite Holland being initially won over by Uncharted’s cinematic qualities, there was no indication that he would be the right man to bring Nathan Drake – a wisecracking, adventure-seeking hero with an appetite for treasure – to the big screen. “It never occurred to me that I could play him,” he continues, pointing out the character’s age, mid-thirties. That all changed after a pitch meeting – just not one initially linked to Uncharted.

“I had a meeting, after or during Spider-Man 2 [Far From Home], with Sony to pitch this idea of a young Bond film that I’d come up with,” Holland explains. “It was the origin story of James Bond. It didn’t really make sense. It didn’t work. It was the dream of a young kid, and I don’t think the Bond estate were particularly interested.

“But the idea of a young Bond film sparked this idea, in turn, that you could do a Nathan Drake story as an origin story, rather than as an addition to the games. And that opened a conversation, and we started to discuss if I could play this role. After meeting with various directors and scriptwriters and storyboard artists,