Hollywood star Tom Holland revealed that he requested Sony Pictures to postpone production on Spider-Man: Brand New Day so he could begin work on Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film The Odyssey.
Recalling a conversation with Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman, Holland told GQ that the decision required a difficult discussion.
“So I said to Chris, like, ‘Look, I want to do this movie, but if I’m going to do it, I’m going to have to call Sony and have a very uncomfortable conversation’,” he told GQ in an interview.
Holland said Sony was ultimately receptive to the delay, partly due to Nolan’s reputation for disciplined filmmaking schedules.
“I think one of the reasons why Sony were happy to move is because Chris has that reputation of, ‘This movie isn’t going to go five months over, and we aren’t actually going to lose Tom for two years...Any other director, it might have been a slightly different conversation’,” he added.
The actor added that the scheduling shift also played a key role in reshaping the creative direction of the next Spider-Man instalment, allowing Destin Daniel Cretton to come on board after Jon Watts, who directed the first three MCU Spider-Man films, stepped away from the franchise.
“The Odyssey almost saved Spider-Man because we wouldn’t have had Destin...He wouldn’t have been ready to make the movie when we were ready to go. We wouldn’t have had the six-month period to develop the script with Destin to get it to a place where it is now,” Holland said.
“And I truly believe that we’ve made the best version of any ‘Spider-Man’ movie going. So while it was a tough pill to swallow for Sony, I think in hindsight, they’re very grateful that it happened,” the actor added.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will mark Holland’s fourth solo outing as the web-slinging superhero, following Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). The film is scheduled to release in theatres on July 31.
Holland first appeared as Peter Parker in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, later reprising the role across multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe titles including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Meanwhile, The Odyssey is slated for release on July 17 and features an ensemble cast including Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron, among others.