Spider-Man star Tom Holland says that Brand New Day was “almost saved” when he requested its production be delayed — so he could go shoot Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey first.
Speaking to GQ, Holland recalled being approached by Nolan to appear in his upcoming historical epic, though he had to admit he was already on the hook to film Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the same time.
“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,” Holland recalled. Which is exactly what he did — and, predictably, the superstar actor ended up getting his way.
Sony agreed to postpone Spider-Man’s production schedule by six months to allow Holland to film The Odyssey, and in the meantime, the studio’s search for a director landed Shang-Chi and Wonder-Man boss Destin Daniel Cretton. The delay also sounds like it allowed Holland, Cretton, and Sony to get a better handle on the film’s story — rather than work it out on set.
“The Odyssey almost saved Spider-Man because we wouldn’t have had Destin,” Holland said. “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. 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.
“We are not going to come to set and figure it out,” Holland said he told Sony, after seeing the way Nolan shot The Odyssey. “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?
“Destin was super instrumental in that,” Holland continued, “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.'”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31, following enormous hype, a record-breaking trailer, and countless speculation around the role of Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. It will debut right after the launch of Nolan’s hugely-anticipated The Odyssey on July 17, which features a stacked cast that includes Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, and also Holland’s real-life partner and Spidey costar Zendaya.
Image credit: MEGA/GC Images via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
