Tom Holland has gone on a fascinating career journey over the past decade as Spider-Man, doing his best to expand beyond his most well-known role to varying degrees of success. However, it’s only very recently that his onscreen presence started mirroring the kind of career the actor deserves—at least as far as roles outside of the Spider-Verse are concerned.
The argument over whether Hollywood produces movie stars anymore has been ongoing since the streaming wars began in the 2010s. It’s an enduring discussion happening in tandem with the question of whether getting cast in something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was a glorified career death sentence, given that many of the roles—particularly for a character like Spider-Man—are contracted to go on for years or, in some cases, decades. Tom Holland has hit the era of his career when he’s actively proving both concerns wrong, but that wasn’t always the case.
Our introduction to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker
Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) might not have been Holland’s first role (that honor belongs to 2012’s “The Impossible”), but it is far and away his breakout as far as American audiences are concerned. The actor’s unassuming performance and aw-shucks energy as Peter Parker immediately won over hearts and solidified his spot in the MCU pantheon in what would be, for a while, a blessing and a curse. While he took on the mantle of Spider-Man at 20, he—like many young adult actors—was portraying a high school student. This led to a feeling that we watched the actor grow up when, in reality, he was already an adult at the start of Peter’s journey. The way audiences perceived Holland as a child would both help and hinder his career, but his bottom line remained safe thanks to the webslinger.
The Spidey suit has been hanging in Holland’s closet for a decade, but he’s gone on various adventures over the years, from bombs like the immediately forgotten “Cherry” (2021) to the middling success of “Uncharted” (2022). The Spider-Man safety web offered Holland freedom to take on roles he was excited for (even if “Uncharted” was set to be another franchise outing), but his primary role as a high schooler held audiences back from taking him seriously as an adult actor. For a while, it seemed as if his acting style might be locked in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man mode for life. But Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is changing that perception.
Holland’s “Odyssey” reaches adulthood
After his turn as Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” (2026), Holland remarked that it was his “last chance to play a boy.” Despite now entering his 30s, the quote was widely publicized but met with general “sure” energy. Enter “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and the idea that our little Spider-Boy has finally become a Spider-Man.
The shift in “Brand New Day” isn’t just because Peter has come a long way from the boyish dork who delightedly told Chris Evans’ Captain America that he’s from Queens and geeked out while fighting Falcon (Anthony Mackie, who has now stepped into the role as Cap) and Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). It’s because Holland was intentionally, directly involved in making sure audiences watched Peter step into adulthood.
A “Brand New Day”
In every sense, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” features Peter becoming an honest-to-God adult. He starts the film with the toxic perceptions of being a man—stressed, overworked, solely focused on his career, confusing control for protection—and ends it swinging into maturity by realizing that he doesn’t just need a community but also balance, love, and support.
And Holland does so by honoring every chapter of Peter’s journey.
Much of his early tenure in the role is as a sweet young man eager to please his mentor, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. This carries from “Civil War” up to Stark’s death in “Avengers: Endgame.” That death was a difficult chapter both onscreen and off, but it gave fans the hope that we’d eventually see the Peter Parker we know from the comics: one who makes his own tech and is just one bad day away from missing rent. A Spidey of his own, if you will. But Stark’s shadow loomed large even after death, leaving the “Spider-Man: Far From Home” version of the character struggling to be seen as a hero beyond his mentor’s gargantuan ego. Sorry, legacy.
Jon Watts’ 2021 entry, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” introduced a transition point, seeking to resolve the problem of a world that knew Peter’s identity as Spider-Man. In losing Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), Holland was charged with exploring a difficult side of Peter, one that was ready to kill and, eventually, one that was willing to give up everything if it meant he could protect the world the way he failed to protect the person who loved him most. While “Homecoming” and “Far From Home” spent much of their time focused on Peter’s occasionally awkward demeanor, “No Way Home” gave Holland the opportunity to showcase Peter’s fear and wrath as he did his best to navigate impossible loss and even harder choices. Holland shouldered those challenges with ease, but he was still playing a frightened and reactionary child rather than the scared (and stressed) adult we’d later see his character become.
“No Way Home” ends with a difficult test for our hero—one that he ultimately fails. Before a spell is cast to make the world forget Peter Parker exists, MJ (Zendaya) explicitly tells him to find her and remind her of what she’s lost. Peter instead decides for her, despite her wishes, and lets her go through four years at MIT without him (this is where we catch up with Peter at the beginning of “Brand New Day”). The decision leaves him alone, lost, and angry, giving Holland the chance to explore parts of Peter he’s never had the opportunity to play with in the past.
Credit: Courtesy Sony Pictures
Spoilers below for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”
It’s here we truly see Peter start to grow up, offering Holland the opportunity to expand past the confines of his character’s childlike demeanor in both performance and script. Little ticks, like his New York accent thickening when he squares his shoulders and goes toe-to-toe with the likes of Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), the thoughtful way he handles MJ’s rejection, or the new confidence of his stride are cues to the audience that Pete’s all grown up. After eventually being forced to move past his lone-wolf mentality, Peter must deal with the consequences of going against MJ’s wishes and relearn how to be a part of a community while trying to save Jean Grey (Sadie Sink).
For all of the ways the film and Holland portray Peter as a big boy now, no single pairing drives it home better than that of Holland and Bernthal. By establishing yet another relationship with a(n anti-)hero much older than him, the story runs the risk of infantilizing Peter once again. Instead, Frank Castle is used as a complicated foil Spider-Man is expected to stand both with and against, depending on the fight. Rising to that occasion is a lot of work for the earnest hero from Queens, but it’s Holland’s performance that solidifies the growth of his character more than anything.
Jon Bernthal Talks ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ + Meeting This Massive Career Moment: ‘Give Every Single Thing You Possibly Can, Always’ In “No Way Home,” Holland’s Peter has Tobey McGuire’s alternate Earth version there to intercept his rage, stopping the hero from killing Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) before our Spidey does something he can’t come back from. In “Brand New Day,” Holland has to find a way to play both Peter’s wrath and his reason while fighting against his whacked-out arachnid hormones. In his panic, Peter creates an inhibitor that will likely have massive implications on the MCU as a whole, but after he comes to the realization that all he ever really needed was balance.
Whether it’s through squaring up with Frank Castle, learning to accept the complicated parts of himself (that manifest themselves as what is basically spider puberty), taking MJ’s muted response on the chin, or being brave enough to reach out to his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), late in the film, the interpersonal relationships of “Brand New Day” do a lot of heavy lifting as this Spider-Boy becomes a Spider-Man. But none of them work without Holland’s always earnest, now also steadfast performance. When viewed alongside the story decisions to showcase Peter Parker manufacturing his own tech and going through the usual struggles of young adulthood (like suffering through Little Caesars pizza in New York City), this new and improved version of Parker offers a bright new future for Tom Holland and Spidey alike.
