Sony has officially confirmed that Uncharted 2 is in active development – and it’s the perfect opportunity to make the adaptation that the first Uncharted movie should’ve been. It’s hardly surprising that Sony is working on an Uncharted sequel. The first movie was a major box office success despite its mixed reviews, and Tom Holland is one of the biggest stars working today thanks to his tenure as Spider-Man. But the sequel needs to avoid the mistakes of its predecessor and actually take advantage of the beloved source material.

During Sony’s presentation at the 2024 CineEurope trade show, Sony Pictures executive Steven O’Dell confirmed that Uncharted 2 is a priority for the studio (along with Zelda, 28 Years Later, and Quentin Tarantino’s final film). Now that the first movie has laid the groundwork, an Uncharted sequel is a great opportunity for the filmmakers to skew a little closer to the games themselves. The Uncharted movie forwent a proper adaptation in favor of an unnecessary origin story (and not even the same origin story from the games) when Drake’s Fortune already presented a great template for an action-adventure movie.

Sony’s Confirmed Uncharted 2 Should Follow The First Game

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the perfect template for an action-adventure movie

Rather than just making a straightforward adaptation of the first game, the Uncharted movie decided to come up with its own story. It cobbled together some memorable set-pieces from the games, like Nate hanging from a cargo plane as it hurtles towards the ground, but it ended up just playing like a generic action-adventure movie. Holland’s Nate is basically Peter Parker without a mask, Mark Wahlberg’s mustache-less Sully is basically an older Nate, and the puzzles – a key part of the games’ mechanics – are painfully easy to solve.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the source material presented to the filmmakers wasn’t so much better. Drake’s Fortune has everything that audiences could want from a fast-paced, globetrotting action-adventure movie: it gets off to an exciting start with a shootout at sea, it dives deep into an ancient temple to establish Nate’s goal, it has an escape from a plane crash, an explosive jet ski chase, and it eventually culminates in an intense underground battle against cave monsters à la The Descent. This would’ve made a great movie – and it still could.

The Uncharted Movie Was An Unnecessary (& Inaccurate) Nathan Drake Origin Story

It wasn’t even the same origin story from the games!

The most egregious thing about the first Uncharted movie focusing on Nate’s origin story is that it didn’t even use the origin story from the games. Flashback sequences in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception already explored Nate’s backstory. It showed a teenage Nate searching for the ring he inherited from Sir Francis Drake at a museum in Cartagena, Colombia. While there, he spots Sully working with Katherine Marlowe to retrieve the same ring. After Nate is captured by Marlowe and her goons, Sully saves him and takes him under his wing as his protégé.

This official origin story is much more compelling than the new origin story that the movie came up with. The movie randomly turned Nate into Tom Cruise in Cocktail. He’s a bartender at a fancy bar in New York City who uses his sleight-of-hand skills to mix drinks and pickpocket customers. Sully tracks Nate down and recruits him like Nick Fury choosing a new Avenger. If the filmmakers wanted to start with Nate’s origin story, they should’ve at least used his actual, canonical origin story.

The Uncharted Movie Already Teased A Sequel Based On Drake’s Fortune

The post-credits scene set up a Drake’s Fortune movie

A precedent is already set for the Uncharted sequel to follow the story of Drake’s Fortune. In the first movie’s mid-credits scene, Nate offers his ring to a mysterious figure in exchange for a “Nazi map” in his possession. When this man tries to betray Nate, Sully steps in to save him, and the two are confronted by an unseen character. If that map leads to the lost treasure of El Dorado and that unseen character is intrepid reporter Elena Fisher, then this mid-credits scene is the perfect setup for an actual adaptation of Drake’s Fortune in the sequel.

From the jungle exploration to the hallway firefights to the supernatural third-act twist, Drake’s Fortune has everything that has come to define the Uncharted franchise, and it deserves a real adaptation. The casting possibilities for live-action Elena are endless: Florence Pugh, Samara Weaving, Anya Taylor-Joy. Sony has established an Uncharted movie franchise, but it failed to satisfy devotees of the video game franchise. Uncharted 2 should be a proper Uncharted movie.