The Uncharted trailer reveals more about Tom Holland's Nathan Drake, but just how old is he compared to the video games? Uncharted is both an adaptation of and prequel to Naughty Dog's hit game franchise, starring Tom Holland as treasure-hunting protagonist Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Victor Sullivan. However, the film's status as a prequel and Holland's fresh-faced Drake raises the question of exactly how old the hero is in the film.
The speculation on just how much Holland's Drake compares to the games started when the actor was first cast in the role, and it hasn't stopped since. The trailer indicates an origin story that features elements from each of the franchise's games, indicating that it will use aspects of Drake's existing story to create a separate canon. This separation from the video games' established timeline makes it difficult to place Drake's age in Uncharted, however, the trailer does offer a handful of clues as to how old Holland's Drake will be.
In the games' timeline, Drake is 15 when he first meets Sully, as shown in a flashback in Uncharted 3. The trailer shows a very different first meeting between the pair, with Holland's Drake clearly not a child upon their apparent first interaction. This establishes that the Uncharted movie is set before the games, but by exactly how much is a little harder to surmise. As the trailer shows Drake working behind a bar when he encounters Sully, it indicates that he's not a minor upon meeting his mentor, and is likely in his early 20s. During the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Drake is 31, which is considerably older than Holland appears to be, narrowing the film's timeline to a period of roughly ten years. However, as Uncharted is an origin story, it's most likely that this occurs early on in that decade, putting a rough estimate on Drake's age in the film at 21 or 22 years old.
This is further evidenced by the mentions of Nathan's brother, Sam. While the film's timeline is clearly a little different from that of the games, the Uncharted movie's characters compare to their video game counterparts relatively faithfully, so it can only be assumed that Sam Drake will eventually end up in the Panamanian prison from Uncharted 4 after the events of the film. The events surrounding Nathan and Sam's incarceration early in the game are estimated to occur when Drake is approximately 25, and given that finding Sam (along with Magellan's treasure) is mentioned in the trailer, it seems that Uncharted is set before their Panamian adventure, providing further evidence that the film's version of Nate is in his early 20s.
As it's hard to know exactly which elements of the video games and their timeline will be included in the film's canon, it's not easy to place the exact age of the film's Drake. However, knowing without a doubt that Uncharted is a prequel to the games makes it a little easier to estimate, and the trailer provides clues that Holland's Drake will be considerably younger than the games' version. The choice to separate the film's narrative from that of the games was clearly a conscious one, but it does make the finer aspects of the timeline a little murky. It is clear though that Tom Holland's Nathan Drake is much younger than that of the games, which allows the Uncharted movie to include a few surprises for even the games' most hardcore fans.
