Tom Holland cast as young Nathan Drake in Uncharted movie

And there we were thinking that Tom Hardy as ‘Venom’ was going to be the most surprising casting news related to the ‘Spider-Man’ movies this month.

In a hugely unexpected move, Deadline report that Sony Pictures have cast their new Spidey Tom Holland as the lead in another major blockbuster franchise-in-waiting, the long-in-development big screen take on video game series ‘Uncharted.’

This is a particular surprise because, as a young-looking 20-year old (cast as Spider-Man in part because he still looks high school age), Holland is considerably more youthful than square-jawed treasure hunter Drake is portrayed in the games, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Other actors linked to the role in the past include Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt.

Director Shawn Levy (‘Night at the Museum,’ ‘Stranger Things’) has long been attached to direct the movie, which had originally been written for the screen by Joe Carnahan – but reportedly the plan is for the script to be “redrafted” by a new writer to centre on a younger Drake, as featured in a sequence in the third ‘Uncharted’ game.

This news would certainly suggest that Sony has high hopes for building Holland into a major movie star; not an unlikely prospect, after the British actor’s scene-stealing introduction as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in 2016’s ‘Captain America: Civil War.’

It also goes some way to demonstrate that the studios are still betting big on video game movies, despite such high-profile misfires as ‘Warcraft’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed.’ 2018 will see Alicia Vikander play Lara Croft in the reboot of ‘Tomb Raider,’ whilst plans are in motion for a ‘Call of Duty’ cinematic universe.

Should ‘Uncharted’ lead to a series as hoped, Holland is going to be very busy indeed in the years ahead, as he’ll be appearing in Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and potentially its as-yet unnamed sequel, and at least one more ‘Spider-Man’ solo movie seems inevitable.

Before that, Holland takes the lead in Marvel/Sony co-production ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ in UK cinemas 5 July. No release date has been announced for ‘Uncharted’ at present.

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