Third incarnation of the spider-man after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland has already played the superhero of the Marvel team six times. But how did he get this coveted role?
In the space of 15 years, between 2002 and 2017, no less than three performers have succeeded each other in the spider-man costume: Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfieldand Tom Holland. The latter, aged 26, has already lined up six incarnations of Spider-Man since he landed the role, of Captain America: Civil War to planetary cardboard Spider-Man: No Way HomePassing by Avengers: Endgame.
To understand how the latter landed a coveted role, it is worth looking in the rear view mirror.
From Spider-Man 4 to The Amazing Spider-Man robot
At the beginning of January 2010, fans of Spider-Man held their breath: the production of Spider-Man 4 was canceled by Sony, which announced the reboot of the franchise. A decision all the more surprising since in general, the studios prefer to let the franchises cool down a little before launching a Reboot.
How Sam Raimiprime contractor between 2002 and 2007 with a formidable trilogy who largely contributed to triggering the wave of superhero films in Hollywood, did he find himself ousted? Officially, he left the ship because of artistic differences with the Major, in particular on the screenplay, which had three different versions. The filmmaker indeed wishes to stage the spider-man struggling with the character of the Vulture, while the production prefers a darker adversary like Carnage or the Lizard.
Unofficially, the pressure exerted by the studio on the production deadlines, particularly tight, according to the development in the pain of Spider-Man 4, precipitates the abandonment of Raimi, followed by Tobey Maguirethe interpreter of “Spidey”.
Their departure is coupled with contractual problems: Sony’s rights to the Spider-Man license stipulate that the Major must continue to make films – in this case at least two -, otherwise these rights will return to the fold. from Marvel Studios.
Columbia TriStar Films
Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Sam Raimi and Kirsten Dunst
The reboot also responds to a need to save money. After three films, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Raimi have obtained to review their salaries upwards and the production budgets are less and less controlled. Spiderman already cost $139 million, Spider Man 2 200 million and Spider Man 3 capped at $258 million.
By cross-checking various estimates, the production budget of The Amazing Spider-Man is about 215 million. By casting actors who were little known to the general public at the time, and therefore much less expensive, such as Andrew Garfield and Emma Stonethe studio makes big savings, and offers itself a new almost unknown and malleable director in the person of Mark Webb.
An aborted Spider-Man extended universe project
Sony’s project is then to adapt certain plots from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series, with a young, dynamic Peter Parker, constantly having to juggle his teenage problems and his superhero duties.
In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man is far from all that and the reception is more than mixed, despite taking in $757 million internationally. Spider-Man is considered too dark and the public regrets dealing with a new presentation of a character they already know.
Sony Pictures Releasing France
Andrew Garfield, a darker Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb
With The Amazing Spider-Man: A Hero’s Fate, Sony is considering the development of a Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, with the development of projects around Sinister Six or Venom, a strategy left aside after the release of the film, which achieved a lower score than the previous one at the box office. At the same time, Marvel has a string of successes. After Iron Man, Thor and Captain Americathe studio, which now belongs to Disney, announces the launch of its MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with the avengers.
In November 2014, the Sony Leak revealed to the public thousands of confidential exchanges, in particular an attempt to reconcile with Marvel Studios. All of this is pushing Sony to speed up negotiations to sign a deal with Marvel that will relaunch the franchise. A third time.
A younger Spider-Man
What fans want is a younger Spider-Man and/or replacing Peter Parker with another Ultimate Universe character, Spider-Man’s alter-ego, Miles Morales. Moreover, from 2010, the actor Donald Gloverwhich is also found in Homecomingevokes in his stand-up shows his desire to embody a Spider-Man Noir in the cinema.
marvel studios
It’s finally a brand new young, immature Peter Parker, who doesn’t have his tongue in his pocket – and white -, who returns to service in the guise of Tom Holland. The challenge of this new reboot is to avoid at all costs falling back into an Origin Story and integrating the character of Spidey into the MCU; because Sony got his hero to appear in Captain America: Civil War and in the next two Avengers in addition to the films of the new saga.
Here is again, for fun, his very first appearance…
A very long casting
It was on June 23, 2015 that Marvel announced that it had found the new chosen one, aged 19 at the time. The result of a very long and difficult casting, as reported at the time by the Hollywood Reporter, due to the complicated relations between Marvel and Sony, and also because it was recorded that the superhero had to first appear in Captain America: Civil War.
They were 1500 actors at the start. On May 30, 2015, there were only six of them, aged 14 to 19, gathered on the set of Captain America: Civil War :Tom Holland, Asa Butterfield, judah lewis, Matthew Lintz, Charlie Plummer and Charlie Rowe.
This handful of actors then carries out tests with Robert Downey Jr. aka Iron Man, which the spider-man is supposed to give the reply in the feature film. All under the gaze ofAmy Pascal (ex-executive of Sony) and Kevin Feigethe big boss of Marvel.
In the end, there are only two actors left in the running: Tom Holland and Charlie Rowe, the first being the best placed. New tests are then carried out to decide between them, this time with the participation of Chris Evans. A second round that will eventually convince the production to choose Tom Holland.
But here we are talking about the final part of Holland’s accomplishment. In an interview with the site Daily Beast in June 2017, he will say that he sent no less than 5 videos of himself to capture the attention of the famous casting director, Sarah Finnwho has had the upper hand in casting Marvel movies since the first Iron Man. After a reading session with her, Finn finally asked her to do Screen Tests with Robert Downey Jr. The rest is now history.