Tom Holland’s Nathan Drake revealed in first photo from the long-in-development Uncharted movie

It’s been over a decade since work began on a movie based on Naughty Dog’s popular Uncharted games. In that time, the film has cycled through seven directors, five release dates, and a series of scripts and actors. But a new picture from star Tom Holland — who’ll be playing a younger version of series hero Nathan Drake — in full costume as the character gives the best evidence yet that the film is actually happening this time.

The shot is admittedly not much to go by — just a still of Holland in Drake’s cargo pants / henley combo and matching pistol holsters. But looking closely reveals the ring, which, in the game’s canon, belongs to Nathan’s maybe-ancestor Sir Francis Drake.

It’s also hard not to fixate on the fact that 24-year-old Holland, looks, well, young in his first appearance as Nathan Drake. Given that the Nathan Drake in the Uncharted games is in his mid- to late-30s, that’s not too surprising. The movie is reportedly set to be a prequel / origin story for the character.

But it’s still a jarring shift for anyone accustomed to the older Nathan Drake. That’s especially true when compared to other live-action interpretations of the character in media like Sony commercials or a particularly good fan film that starred Nathan Fillion and Stephen Lang as pitch-perfect replicas of Drake and his mentor Sully.

Original Nathan Drake voice actor Nolan North also shared a few images from the set, which appears to prove that the Uncharted movie — which, at least for now, is still being directed by Ruben Fleischer — is, in fact, a real film that is actually in production and could one day be something you’ll get to watch in theaters.

Uncharted is set to hit theaters on July 16th, 2021, barring any more changes in Sony’s theatrical release schedule caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Taylor Ali, and Tati Gabrielle are set to star.