Welcome to Tom Holland Summer

ByDaniel ChinJuly 27, 1:21 pm UTC
• 10 min

Christopher Nolan’s The Odysseyis off to a phenomenal start in what is shaping up to be a long, prosperous theatrical run. The film earned another $215 million at the global box office over its second weekend, bringing its total haul up to almost $640 million worldwide. It’s the blockbuster movie of the summer—well, so far, at least. Because on Friday, Nolan’s latest masterpiece will begin to face some stiff competition as Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters, five years after the previous installment in the Spider-franchise, No Way Home, earned $1.9 billion worldwide. Even as superhero movies continue to lose their cultural relevance, Brand New Daycould cross the $1 billion threshold again—and The Odyssey is tracking to hit that mark, as well. As both films set their sights on the major box office milestone, one actor finds himself at the center of the summer’s two biggest blockbusters: Tom Holland.

Holland is at something of an inflection point in his career. The English thespian, who just turned 30 in June, has been acting in feature films since he was 14 years old, escaping a tsunami in 2012’s The Impossible, and on the stage playing Billy Elliot in London’s West End a couple of years before that. But he first emerged as a rising star in Hollywood in 2016, when he swung onto the big screen as the winsome, wisecracking Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War. The arrival of Spider-Man in the MCU was a huge pop culture moment at a time when superhero movies were peaking in ubiquity. The beloved superhero IP had been toiling away for years under Sony’s control while Marvel Studios built its Hollywood empire, but after the two studios finally struck a deal in 2015 to allow the character to cross over, the web-head could at last share a cinematic universe with the Avengers.

Holland’s trio of Spidey films were all monster hits, culminating in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time in No Way Home. Holland’s Spider-Man also played a crucial role in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. (“Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good,” brought many grown men to tears and spawned many, many memes.) Through it all, Holland proved himself capable of serving as a leading man in Hollywood. But a few non-MCU misfires have raised the question: Where can Holland take his career after Spider-Man?

In 2020, Holland starred opposite his Odysseycostar Robert Pattinson in Netflix’s The Devil All the Time, which got mixed reviews as Holland took on a much different, darker role than what audiences were used to seeing him in. He then went on to lead in Chaos Walking, opposite Daisy Ridley, and Cherryin 2021—the latter of which featured Holland in another dark role, portraying a veteran with PTSD. Chaos Walking was panned by critics and flopped at the box office, earning just $26.5 million worldwide against an estimated $125 million budget. Meanwhile, Cherry—directed by Marvel stalwarts the Russo brothers—had a limited theatrical run before being released on Apple TV, and it was also met by mixed reviews. In 2022, Sony’s Uncharted became a commercial success despite receiving a similarly lukewarm critical reception. Holland’s performances were often praised in these films, particularly for his emotional turn in Cherryas the titular veteran descends into a life of crime and drug addiction—but the results of his non-Marvel projects have all been uneven.

With The Odyssey, Holland was presented with the unique opportunity to work with Nolan, an auteur who’s a box office draw unto himself. It offered him the chance to learn from a generational filmmaker and perform in front of a global audience, all without being tethered to franchise IP. As Peter Parker, Holland demonstrated that he could play a central character with a boyish charm and naivety—and his résumé made him a fitting choice to play Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, in The Odyssey.

Along with its tremendous box office success, The Odysseyhas been a huge hit with critics and audiences alike, and it will surely be showered with Oscars and other accolades on the awards circuit early next year. Although he’s just one piece of a star-studded ensemble cast, Holland has a pivotal role in the film. Homer’s epic poem is, of course, a story about Odysseus and his 10-year journey back home to Ithaca after the conclusion of the 10-year Trojan War. But it’s also a coming-of-age narrative for Telemachus.

“Left as a ‘little newborn baby’ when Odysseus sailed for Troy, he

must be 20 or 21 years old at the time of the poem’s action, but he seems in many ways younger,” Emily Wilson wrote of Telemachus in the introduction of her 2017 translation of The Odyssey. “To fight off the suitors and take control of the household himself, he would need great physical and emotional strength, a strong group of supporters, and the capacity to plan a difficult military and political operation—none of which he possesses. Telemachus must complete several difficult quests in the course of the poem: to survive the mortal danger posed by the suitors; to mature and grow up to manhood; to find his lost father, and help him regain control of the house.”

Holland’s youthful Telemachus accepts these responsibilities as a dutiful son. He’s the perfect setup man to his costars, often sharing the screen with some of the film’s best performances and helping them shine. He brings the ingratiating energy of an annoying younger sibling and tees up Pattinson to deliver a nasty turn as the villainous Antinous, Telemachus’s would-be stepfather. Holland does the same for Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, who eviscerates her wide-eyed son with exasperated, righteous rage when Telemachus pushes her to either give him the throne or finally accept a suitor to replace her long-lost husband. When Matt Damon’s Odysseus returns home at last, Holland captures the subtle complexity of one of the film’s most emotional moments, as Telemachus finally sees through his beggar’s disguise to recognize the father he’s never known. And then he steps aside to let Odysseus stick his superhero landing.

Although Telemachus fought alongside his father near the end of Homer’s Odyssey, slaying suitors to claim some glory of his own, in Nolan’s adaptation he allows his dad to face their enemies alone. The film doesn’t provide Telemachus with the same chance to earn his rightful place on the Ithacan throne, just the meager opportunity to narrowly defeat a traitorous cowherd and deliver a sword to Odysseus. It’s a creative decision that may better align with Nolan’s vision of Odysseus and the burden he carries from his role in the Trojan horse deception, but it does sideline Holland for the film’s grand finale.

Holland’s performance may be overshadowed by some of his costars, but he plays the supporting role well. However, not everyone who’s seen The Odyssey has felt that way. With the exceptions of Nolan’s faithfulness to the epic poem and the historical accuracy of the helmets (among other bad-faith criticisms), Holland’s turn as the Ithacan prince may be the most divisive topic among critics and audiences. The internet has debated whether he’s a pleasant surprise or the weakest link in a cast of some of Hollywood’s finest. Varietywent as far as to rank 17 major performances in the film … and position Holland dead last.

Some of the negative discussion around Holland in The Odyssey could be rooted in the modern-day qualities that he possesses—and it doesn’t help his case that Nolan has him saying mom and dad in this movie either, all while he’s using his Peter Parker American accent. There’s also the fact that a Nolan title brings a certain level of prestige to a film that he hadn’t experienced yet, and viewers could be grading him on a different rubric than they’ve used on his previous films. And perhaps most likely, it could stem from the audience’s familiarity with Holland’s performances as Spider-Man and the similarities that Telemachus shares with Peter Parker. 

The MCU hero’s coming-of-age arc in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming even finds young Peter on a similar journey into manhood, as Peter tries to prove himself capable of handling bigger responsibilities as a fledgling superhero while others around him keep telling him that he’s only a kid. Like Telemachus, Parker desperately wants to be taken seriously. In 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, he’s trying to escape the shadow of his father figure (Tony Stark), whose legacy looms over him. All three of Holland’s Spider-Man movies have been set during Peter’s high school days, and he’s yet to graduate past that boyish, whimsical era of superhero adolescence.

But regardless of how audiences grade Holland’s performance in The Odyssey, working on a Nolan project can only be a net positive for the actor’s career moving forward. And Holland has already started to apply his experience to how he approaches his superhero work and what he expects from his collaborators at Marvel Studios.

“I was really able to lay down the law and say, ‘We are not going to come to set and figure it out,’” Holland told GQ. “‘We need to know why we are making this movie beyond the fact that it’s Spider-Man 4 and they make loads of money and we’re going to just have a big summer. Why are we making this movie?’ And [director Destin Daniel Cretton] was super instrumental in that, but it was just really great to constantly be calling up the studio and [producers] Amy [Pascal] and Rachel [O’Connor], who I love, and be like, ‘Well, Chris is doing it this way. This is how I think we should be doing it.’”

As its title suggests, Brand New Day represents a new beginning for Spider-Man—both in terms of the character’s story and how Marvel is approaching the latest entry in the franchise. Peter has finally outgrown high school; he’s even stretching before fights. Jon Watts’s Spider-Man trilogy has concluded, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Cretton has stepped in to direct. And while it’s still no Odyssey, Brand New Day is eschewing Marvel’s typical overreliance on green screens to prioritize a greater emphasis on real-world locations and practical effects. It all may lead to this character and franchise moving past its familiar coming-of-age tale.

Holland has been playing Spider-Man since he was 18 years old, and back in 2021, he told GQthat “if I’m playing Spider-Man after I’m 30, I’ve done something wrong.” That time has arrived, and there’s no apparent end in sight for Holland’s Spidey tenure. Even though only five years have passed since the actor made the statement, it now reads like the kind of thing one would say in the hubris of their 20s, when turning 30 feels both distant and daunting. When GQasked him about the quote, Holland admitted that his feelings have changed since then: “I think the truth is that playing Spider-Man has been the joy of my life. I now kind of stand on the plinth of like, I’ll do it for as long as they’ll have me.”

After The Odyssey and Brand New Day, the question remains: Where will Holland go from here? And will he ever be able to shake the boyish image that he’s just reinforced with his performance in The Odyssey? In the same GQcover story, he described this double-feature experience as “this amazing moment where I feel like I got to hit the reset button and end the chapter of being a kid in Hollywood.” And the actor has already signed on to several upcoming projects, all of which seem to signal this desire to embrace more mature roles.

First up is the long-gestating Fred Astaire biopic, which was announced five years ago but is finally nearing production. Holland has begun his rehearsals for the film, going back to his Billy Elliotroots as he prepares to perform the movie’s dance numbers himself. He’s also been attached to star in Amazon MGM Studios’s American Speed alongside Austin Butler. As Deadlinereported in November 2024, the film is “based on the true story of the Whittington brothers—three historically famous race car drivers, two of whom were part of the 1980s IMSA scandal, in which a number of drivers were charged with financing their racing activities with proceeds from drug smuggling, money laundering, or tax evasion.” And lastly, Holland has signed on to lead The Partner, an adaptation of John Grisham’s 1997 legal thriller novel. Directed by Jason Bateman, the film will see Holland portray a junior attorney who fakes his death to steal $90 million for a client. 

It will likely be a while before any of these upcoming movies are released in theaters, and we may continue to see Holland suit up as Spidey in the interim, whether it’s in one of the upcoming Avengers installments or a future Spider-Mansequel. But Holland seems ready for whatever comes next. “It feels like the beginning of the next chapter of my life,” Holland told GQ. “I really feel like a young man now. I have so much amazing stuff happening in my personal life to take me through to the rest of my life, and I feel like I have a new perspective on where I want to exist in Hollywood.”

With Holland’s ongoing press tour thrusting him into headlines again after he puked during a recent episode of Hot Ones and with Brand New Day set to arrive later this week, this Tom Holland summer is still far from over. But as the seasons change and the actor enters this new phase, we’ll see just how much Holland is able to leverage this moment to shape the next stage of his career, and whether he’ll truly be able to complete the coming-of-age journey he’s always portraying on-screen.

Daniel Chin
Daniel ChinDaniel writes about TV, film, and scattered topics in sports that usually involve the New York Knicks. He often covers the never-ending cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.