Uncharted 2 Can Make Nolan North's Beach Cameo Even Better
Mia Smith Nolan North's beach cameo in Uncharted is one of the movie's talking points, and Uncharted 2 could have fun with his character if he were to return.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Uncharted.
Uncharted 2 is likely to happen given the financial success of the first movie, and a sequel could have real fun with another Nolan North appearance following his beach cameo. Having been in development hell for over a decade, the video game adaption finally got off the ground with Tom Holland playing treasure hunter Nathan Drake, even with his casting dividing fans. Uncharted received mixed-to-negative reviews, but has been a modest box office hit for Tom Holland and Sony following their massive success with Spider-Man: No Way Home. If Uncharted 2 does come to pass, there is plenty of scope for Nolan North to become a reoccurring character in Sony's new movie franchise.
Nolan North provides the voice and motion-capture for treasure hunter Nathan Drake in the Uncharted video games, and his cameo on the beach is a nice easter egg for many fans of the long-running series. After falling from a cargo plane into the ocean, Holland's Drake emerges onto a beach, where Nolan North is sunning himself and asks him what happened. When Holland tells him, North replies "something like that happened to me once before," in reference to a similar sequence in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
While Nolan North's Uncharted cameo is intended as a joke and wink for those who've played the games, it does have the potential to be expanded upon in Uncharted 2. Taken literally, his line regarding him having fallen out of a plan implies that he's got an adventurous past (even if currently he appears to be relaxing on vacation). Such a past would fit perfectly in Uncharted 2. The simplest way Nolan North could appear again would be another cameo with a similar reference to the Uncharted games. The movies could make it a running gag, in the way Stan Lee's cameos in the MCU were always a delight. If the filmmakers were inclined, though, an Uncharted 2 cameo could even be turned into an actual role that impacts the plot, such as him being a fellow treasure hunter. Nolan North is after all an established and talented voice actor, and his motion-capture for the Uncharted video games shows he can keep up physically too.
Having Nolan North return for Uncharted 2 could also retrospectively explain why he's on a beach in the Philippines. If he were a fellow treasure hunter, he could have potentially found out about the location of the treasure via another means and been there to search for it. The fact that he looks around at Drake walking away and says "good luck" suggests that he might know more than he's letting on. Uncharted 2 could also benefit from Nolan North's ad-libbing skills that he brought to the Uncharted games. He infused his version of Nathan Drake with a strong personality, and bringing some of that charm to the sequel could only benefit Uncharted 2, even if only for another cameo.
Nolan North's role in Uncharted 2 wouldn't have to be one of the main characters, but if the movie were to double-down on his beach cameo, it would be fun to open up Uncharted’s world more with his presence and link it more to the games. Having his knowledge of the series to hand also couldn't hurt. Uncharted 2 has an uphill battle to win over gamers who were disappointed with the first movie, and what better way than having the original Nathan Drake play a bigger part in the sequel?
