Tom Holland has played Spider-Man for the past six years – but was nearly not cast in the iconic superhero role.
In a new interview, Joe Russo – one half of the Russo brothers, who direct the current chapters in the Spider-Man franchise – explained that Sony – the studio that makes the movies – weren’t keen on Tom, now 24, at first.
‘We talked with [president Kevin] Feige at Marvel about Holland and he got excited and then we went to Sonyโฆ’ Joe told The Playlist. ‘And they were like, “Let’s think about it for a minute.”
Near miss: Tom Holland has played Spider-Man for the past six years – but was nearly not cast in the iconic superhero role
‘We could tell we were meeting resistance from Sony. So we brought [Tom] back, brought him back, brought him back, and we were relentless in our pursuit of jamming him down the throat of the studio who owns this IP.
‘It came down to a fight, yet Sony just kept dragging their feet.’
Tom was first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, before he made his first appearance as the titular hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Joe went on: ‘Coming into Civil War, Sony is looking at us going, “OK, so you guys have the Midas touch, here’s our [Spider-Man] IP.”
Close call: In a new interview, Joe Russo – one half of the Russo brothers, who direct the current chapters in the Spider-Man franchise – explained that Sony – the studio that makes the movies – weren’t keen on Tom, now 24, at first
Resistance: ‘We talked with [president Kevin] Feige at Marvel about Holland and he got excited and then we went to Sonyโฆ’ Joe told The Playlist. ‘And they were like, “Let’s think about it for a minute”‘
New boy: Tom was first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War [pictured], before he made his first appearance as the titular hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming
‘But, also, they were reticent, nervous, about handing off something that could ultimately cost them hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars down the line.’
Co-director Anthony Russo shared that Tom, who was a teenager at the time, also made the studio execs nervous.
‘It was the first time Spider-Man had ever been cast as an actual teenager, right? Which was very important to us; there was a distinct nervousness of casting a kid,’ he said.
Joe added: ‘There’s a universe where Tom Holland is the last great movie star coming in underneath the wire of disruption.
‘It takes a perfect storm of events to create a star: talent, timing, marketplace!’
The cast of ‘Spider-Man 3’ reveal the title in fun new teaser
Big reveal: Tom joked about his tendency to spoil secrets while revealing the name of the next highly-anticipated superhero sequel on Wednesday – Spider-Man: No Way Home
There it is! Zendaya and Jacob teased Tom in the official announcement clip on Wednesday, telling the English actor behind Peter Parker he was an expert at spoiling things as they walked past a whiteboard with the title written on it
Tom and co-stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon revealed the title to the latest Spider-Man sequel last week.
The follow-up to 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home has officially been dubbed Spider-Man: No Way Home.
But keeping the name a secret was no easy task due to the leading man’s notoriously loose-lips.
Zendaya and Jacob teased Tom in the official announcement on Wednesday, telling the English actor behind Peter Parker he was an expert at spoiling things while they walked past a whiteboard with the title written on it.
Tom Holland walks in the snow while filming ‘Spider-Man 3’
