The Last Of Us Episode 8 Avoided An Uncharted Mistake – Looper

“Uncharted,” PlayStation’s first attempt at a live-action adaptation, starred Tom Holland in the lead role of Nathan Drake, with the character’s voice actor, Nolan North, cameoing in the movie. The scene comes right after Nathan and Chloe (Sophia Ali) fall out of a plane, washing up on a beach in the Philippines. Waiting for them on the beach is an awfully curious hotel guest (North) who tells the two treasure hunters that he similarly fell out of a plane before. While North’s cameo is fun, the scene feels incredibly out of place, as is evident by Holland’s awkward “Okay?” as they walk away from North’s character.

The cameo in “Uncharted” shows the wrong way to include voice actors in live-action adaptations of their work. For one, North is a voice actor, so it’s common for people not to know what he looks like, while general audiences would have no clue what the scene was referencing in the first place. The result is just an odd scene that distracts from the movie’s plot and stands out as a strange addition for anyone unfamiliar with the video game industry.

Thankfully, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin found a more natural way to bring multiple voice actors into “The Last of Us.” While they could have easily included a scene where the two Joels (Pedro Pascal and Troy Baker) run into each other — making their version of the Spider-Man meme — they instead chose to give Baker’s character a significant role in the overall plot. At no point in Episode 8 did it seem necessary for him to share the screen with Pascal’s Joel, proving that the showrunners prioritized plot over fan service.