Entertainment
Tom Holland almost wasn’t cast as Spider-Man despite being backed by Russo brothers
Playing Spider-Man is a pretty big deal and one Tom Holland has done expertly since taking over the role, but there was a time when Sony had their doubts over casting him.
The actor, 24, made his debut as Peter Parker aka Spider-Man in Marvel movie Spider-Man: Homecoming released in 2017.
Its the latest trilogy from Marvel that focuses on the web-slinging superhero and while the Russo brothers – who have long been attached to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – backed Tom all the way to be their lead, they had a hard time convincing Sony bosses.
In an interview with The Playlist, Joe Russo explained that while he had Marvel president Kevin Feige on board with casting Tom – who is currently filming Spider-Man 3 – he faced resistance from Sony at first.
‘They were like, “Let’s think about it for a minute,” we could tell we were meeting resistance from Sony,’ he said.
‘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… it came down to a fight, yet Sony just kept dragging their feet.’
Joe explained: ‘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.
His brother Anthony Russo revealed that Tom’s age was a problem with bosses at first. Tom filmed Homecoming when he was 20, making him the youngest actor to have ever played Spidey.
‘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,’ Anthony said.
Tom, who broke his computer with excitement on finding out he’d been cast as Spider-Man, made his debut four years ago in Homecoming and went on to star in follow-up film Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019.
He was also seen as Spider-Man in Avengers movies Infinity War and Endgame and is now reprising his role for a third Spider-Man film set for release in December later this year.
It’s a good thing Sony decided to take a chance on him, as Tom had played a crucial part in negotiating a new deal between the distributing company and Marvel at the beginning of last year.
Sony and Marvel had struggled to come to an agreement to keep Spider-Man in the MCU, so Tom took it upon himself to get the two to play ball by calling up Disney CEO Bob Iger – albeit three pints deeps at his local pub – and getting him to reconsider.
‘It was a huge learning curve for me and I was very, very grateful that the two studios allowed me to be a part of that process,’ Tom later told Yahoo! Entertainment.
‘I’m so glad that we were able to do it because I think Spider-Man is now where he belongs, he’s home in the MCU and I’m so grateful that I get to keep playing him in that place.’
Spider-Man 3 is set for release on December 17, 2021.
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