Nolan North discusses Amy Hennig's Uncharted 4 departure
"That's the business."
Nolan North, the man behind roguish hero Nathan Drake, has shed more light on the departure of Uncharted creator Amy Hennig from Naughty Dog during the making of A Thief's End.
North was a guest on Couch Soup this weekend, as hosts Liam McIntyre and Todd Lasance began their playthrough of Uncharted 4. Just before the opening sequences began rolling, North was asked more about how this final version of the game came about. Clearly not wanting to shy away from the elephant in the room, North went straight into chatting about Hennig, and the changes made after she left the game's development.
"The biggest thing most people probably remember is... we had shot Uncharted 4 with Amy Hennig for about seven months. We were well into the game. And she was dismissed from Naughty Dog... and they got rid of everything we did," North recalled.
"They recast the whole thing. The original cast had Graham McTavish... Cutter [McTavish's character, last seen in Drake's Deception] had a huge role in Amy's 4. Todd Stashwick played Sam and Alan Tudyk was Rafe.
"But they ended up switching it all out - Troy [Baker] came on to play Sam, they added Nadine for Laura [Bailey].
"Financially it was nice... but you know, that's the business... I was just glad they didn't just scrap the whole thing and say, 'it's done, we're done'."
Following this change, Hennig went on to work at EA's now defunct studio Visceral Games. Today, the director announced a new Star Wars game was in the works, as part of a collaboration between her current studio Skydance New Media and Lucasfilm Games.
Meanwhile, back on Couch Soup, North went on to praise the recent Uncharted film adaptation, noting that it had brought people back to the games.
"I met this guy and his son who was about 10 or 11. He said, 'I just took [my son] to the movie, and he came home and immediately wanted to play these games'.
"There is a whole new generation [discovering Uncharted] thanks to Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, and what they did with the movie."
You can watch the full chat with North below.
