Tom Holland has expressed his feelings on returning for Spider-Man 4 in the past, stating that he’d only do so if it “does the character justice.
So what is Holland’s verdict after reading a draft of the script for a fourth MCU Spider-Man film?
“We have a creative and we have a pitch and a draft, which is excellent,” Holland revealed on a recent episode of the Rich Roll Podcast. “It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job. I read it three weeks ago and it really lit a fire in me. Zendaya and I sat down and read it together and we at times were bouncing around the living room like this is a real movie worthy of the fans’ respect.”
Holland added that one of the biggest challenges in returning for Spider-Man 4 would be finding a way to fit most sensibly fit the film into the current MCU timeline in a way that it will be conducive to the big picture.
“One of the things is that, with Marvel, your film is a small cog in a large machine,” Holland added. “That machine has got to keep running. You have to make sure you can fit into that timeline at the right time to benefit the bigger picture. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing. The time in which we need to get that done is a tall order but definitely achievable with the people we have working on it now.”
Spider-Man 4 currently has director Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as an early favorite to direct the film. Cretton would take the helm from Jon Watts, who directed 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Tom Holland starred as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in all three of those films, and first appeared as Parker/Spidey in the MCU in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
Later in the interview Holland acknowledged the immense admiration he has for Iron Man (and soon to be Doctor Doom) actor Robert Downey Jr., whose character served as Spider-Man’s mentor during his formative years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I think I’ve told this story before, when I did my audition, it was like eight pages of dialogue,” Holland said about his screen test with Downey Jr. “The scene with Downey was great, the audition went really well.” He added, “I was told by my agent to learn the lines exactly,” Holland said in anticipation of being opposite the Oppenheimer actor.
Holland continued, “When we did my first take with Downey, he just started improvising and changing everything in the script, which kind of gave me license to kind of follow him, and I think something I learned from Downey is like, you can’t beat him, but you ride his coattails, and those are good coattails to ride.”
Holland added that introducing a character and taking him under his wing much like Downey’s Iron Man did with his Spider-Man would be an dream come true.
“I owe that to him,” Holland continued. “I’d love to one day do that. If I’d be lucky enough to somehow bring Miles Morales into my Spider-Man universe and into the MCU, I’d love to do for a young kid what Downey did for me.”
What do you think of the current opinion of Tom Holland on returning for Spider-Man 4? If Holland could manage to give anything away without spoiling, we’d love a hint of what he read at the very least.
Which villains do you think Spider-Man will take on in Spider-Man 4? Let us know in the comments.
