'Uncharted' Director Shawn Levy Isn't Considering Your Nathan Drake Fan Casting

Uncharted fans have some ideas for who they'd like to see play the video game series' beloved hero, Nathan Drake. A fan once even approached David O. Russell (Three Kings), a multiple Academy Award nominee, to tell him who he thought should play the explorer and treasure hunter. Some fans have more restraint than that, and Uncharted's new director, Shawn Levy, is aware of who those fans want to see as Nathan Drake — but that's not going to influence his decision, as it shouldn't.

Below, Levy discusses looking for his Uncharted star.

This video game adaptation is Shawn Levy's next film, and Bad Boys for Life director Joe Carnahan is currently busy writing it. The director intends on shooting the film in next spring or early next summer, so he has some time until he needs to cast his hero, but of course those conversations are already underway. The director told Collider "the studio and the producers [are] talking about who feels right to us and to me."

As for the square-jawed actors that fans are championing for, Levy knows the famous names being thrown around:

I've been pitched everyone. God bless you, Twitter, but I made a joke that, "You're saving me the money of hiring a casting director, Twitter," because from Nikolaj [Coster-Waldau] to Oscar Isaac, [Nathan] Fillion, everyone that you would, [Chris] Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Pine, I mean the suggestions are... It's every actor who is ruggedly handsome, which is to say every movie star, and who looks anything like the square-jawed, chiseled-featured Drake. I'm not actually going to base my casting on Twitter suggestions. Maybe I've even said the name in this room; who knows? Eventually, if people keep suggesting ideas and actors, one of them will prove to be true. We're very hard at work on the script right now.

One thing Levy made clear, though: he's not looking for the next Indiana Jones:

Indiana Jones, people compare Uncharted to it because both are treasure-hunting movies, but Indy was academic, there was nobility and a kind of well-intentioned ... he actually was heroic whereas Drake, the last thing he would ever call himself or be called is heroic. And if he has heroic qualities within him, they're in spite of his rogue nature. So maybe from a million miles away it'll have those Indy elements, but it's very much a much grittier, more naturalistic, real-world, contemporary.

That's exactly how Joe Carnahan feels about the Uncharted and Indiana Jones comparisons, that the two characters couldn't be more different, even if their globe-trotting adventures have some obvious similarities. Like Indiana Jones, though, Levy's video game adaptation needs an actor with serious, real deal charisma, and some of the actors listed above certainly have that. Whomever the director and studio eventually cast in the role, which Mark Wahlberg was once going to play, we'll likely know soon, considering the hopeful start date isn't too far off.

Uncharted currently doesn't have a release date.