A new Uncharted 4 documentary has put fresh detail around the version of A Thief's End that existed before Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog, including a much larger early role for Elena Fisher and the planned return of Uncharted 3's Charlie Cutter.
The video, Uncovering Amy Hennig's Uncharted 4 by Thekempy, digs into the discarded version of the PS4 sequel through development material, cut scenes, motion-capture footage and unused story ideas. It lands just after Uncharted 4's 10th anniversary, which makes the comparison sharper: the game players know as Nathan Drake's farewell could have opened with a very different adventure team.
Elena was closer to the adventure from the start
In the released Uncharted 4, Nate begins in a more domestic place before Sam Drake pulls him back into the hunt for Henry Avery's treasure. Hennig's earlier version would have kept Elena closer to the core adventure much sooner.
According to the material highlighted in the documentary, Nate, Elena and Victor "Sully" Sullivan would have been diving in the Bahamas when they found a shipwreck. After that job went wrong, Nate and Elena would have gone to a gala together while posing as guests, trying to recover an artefact taken from them.
That is a major shift from the finished game's gala sequence, where Nate works with Sam and Sully instead. Cutter would also have appeared in the ballroom scene, using prosthetics as part of a disguise. The character, played by Graham McTavish in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, was ultimately cut from A Thief's End.
Elena and Cutter were also planned to join Nate and Sully in Scotland, with that version of the area reportedly including an ATV for traversal. The result sounds less like the final game's slow reveal of Nate's double life and more like a direct continuation of the older Uncharted crew dynamic.
Sam Drake's reveal would have played out differently
The documentary also points to a different setup for Sam. Hennig's version would not have included the playable orphanage flashback that appears in the final game. Instead, players would have seen young Sam being dropped off at the orphanage before the story shifted to an older Nate in a prison cell.
Sam's connection to Nate would not have been revealed immediately either. The brother relationship was reportedly meant to unfold over the course of the story, rather than being established as directly as it is in the version Naughty Dog shipped in 2016.
That fits with other well-known changes from the game's rebooted development. Todd Stashwick was originally cast as Sam before Troy Baker took over the role, while Alan Tudyk had been set to play Rafe before Warren Kole was cast in the final game. After Hennig's departure, Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann became directors on the project and the game was heavily reworked.
Nolan North, who played Nathan Drake, said in 2022 that the team had already shot around seven months of Uncharted 4 under Hennig before she was dismissed from Naughty Dog and the existing work was thrown out. The exact circumstances around Hennig's departure have long remained one of the most discussed behind-the-scenes stories in Naughty Dog history.
A different road to the same farewell
The final Uncharted 4 still became one of PlayStation 4's defining exclusives, wrapping Nate and Elena's story while leaving the wider series room to continue through Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. A Thief's End later came to PS5 and PC as part of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.
What makes the new documentary interesting is not just that scenes were cut. Big games change constantly. The striking part is how different the emotional centre seems to have been, with Elena, Sully and Cutter apparently woven into the treasure hunt earlier and Sam's identity held back for a slower reveal.
Hennig has since moved on to Skydance New Media, where she is working on Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. Uncharted, meanwhile, remains quiet as a game series, even though its last two main releases are now available beyond PS4. That makes this look at the abandoned version feel less like trivia and more like a rare glimpse at the other road Nathan Drake's final story nearly took.