Shawn Levy “poured a lot of time and creative sweat” into Uncharted before he left the movie.

The filmmaker was attached to direct the movie adaptation of the video game in 2016 but he departed the project in 2018 to make Free Guy instead.

While he has no regrets about choosing Free Guy over Uncharted, Levy noted on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he still put a lot of work into the latter film.

“I did spend a lot of time on Uncharted,” he began. “(I) definitely was involved and personally developed the earliest drafts of that Nathan (Drake) origin story, and you know, had talks in those times, in those months, with Tom Holland, took a deep dive into the lore and into the character.”

He continued, “I can’t say I regret the decision but sometimes you really pour a lot of yourself into a project and then you have to watch it go off into the world as its own thing. That was my experience with Uncharted. No bad feelings, no regret, but one that I definitely poured a lot of time and creative sweat into.”

After many years in development hell, Uncharted was eventually directed by Ruben Fleischer and released in 2022, with Holland starring as Nathan Drake.

The Stranger Things producer added that he made the right call picking Free Guy because it kickstarted his collaborations with Ryan Reynolds.

“It all worked out for a reason; I left Uncharted to make Free Guy and that proved to be a defining creative experience, both as a movie but also in my life,” he gushed. “How many of us make a new best friend in adulthood? It doesn’t really happen. Well, it happened for Ryan and me and so we have Free Guy to thank.”

Levy and Reynolds followed up Free Guy with The Adam Project, and they will resume production on Deadpool 3 once the actors’ strike ends.

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