{"id":562036,"date":"2026-07-27T15:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/562036\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T15:36:11","slug":"welcome-to-tom-holland-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/562036\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Tom Holland Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Movies<\/a>Movies<\/a>The actor will dominate this season\u2019s box office with \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 and \u2018Spider-Man: Brand New Day,\u2019 but can he evolve past his boyish on-screen persona? \"\"Getty Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Daniel Chin<\/a>July 27, 1:21 pm UTC \u2022 10 min<\/p>\n

Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey is off to a phenomenal start in what is shaping up to be a long, prosperous theatrical run. The film earned another $215 million<\/a> at the global box office over its second weekend, bringing its total haul up to almost $640 million worldwide. It\u2019s the blockbuster movie of the summer\u2014well, so far, at least. Because on Friday, Nolan\u2019s latest masterpiece will begin to face some stiff competition as Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters, five years after the previous installment in the Spider-franchise, No Way Home, earned $1.9 billion worldwide<\/a>. Even as superhero movies continue to lose their cultural relevance<\/a>, Brand New Day could cross the $1 billion threshold<\/a> again\u2014and The Odyssey is tracking<\/a> to hit that mark, as well. As both films set their sights on the major box office milestone, one actor finds himself at the center of the summer\u2019s two biggest blockbusters: Tom Holland<\/p>\n

Holland is at something of an inflection point in his career. The English thespian, who just turned 30 in June, has been acting in feature films since he was 14 years old, escaping a tsunami in 2012\u2019s The Impossible<\/a>, and was on the stage<\/a> playing Billy Elliot in London\u2019s West End a couple of years before that. But he first emerged as a rising star in Hollywood in 2016, when he swung onto the big screen as the winsome, wisecracking Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War. The arrival of Spider-Man in the MCU was a huge pop culture moment at a time when superhero movies were peaking in ubiquity. The beloved superhero IP had been toiling away for years under Sony\u2019s control while Marvel Studios built its Hollywood empire, but after the two studios finally struck a deal in 2015 to allow the character to cross over, the web-head could at last share a cinematic universe with the Avengers.<\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s trio of Spidey films were all monster hits, culminating in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time in No Way Home. Holland\u2019s Spider-Man also played a crucial role in 2018\u2019s Avengers: Infinity War. (\u201cMr. Stark, I don\u2019t feel so good\u201d brought many grown men to tears and spawned many, many memes<\/a>.) Through it all, Holland proved himself capable of serving as a leading man in Hollywood. But a few non-MCU misfires have raised a question: Where can Holland take his career after Spider-Man?<\/p>\n

In 2020, Holland starred opposite his Odyssey costar Robert Pattinson in Netflix\u2019s The Devil All the Time, which got mixed reviews<\/a> as Holland took on a much different, darker role than what audiences were used to seeing him in. He then went on to lead in Chaos Walking, opposite Daisy Ridley, and Cherry in 2021\u2014the latter of which featured Holland in another dark role, portraying a veteran with PTSD. Chaos Walking was panned by critics<\/a> and flopped at the box office, earning just $26.5 million worldwide against an estimated $125 million budget. Meanwhile, Cherry\u2014directed by Marvel stalwarts the Russo brothers\u2014had a limited theatrical run before being released on Apple TV, and it was also met by mixed reviews<\/a>. In 2022, Sony\u2019s Uncharted became a commercial success<\/a> despite receiving a similarly lukewarm critical reception<\/a>. Holland\u2019s performances were often praised in these films, particularly his emotional turn in Cherry<\/a> as the titular veteran descends into a life of crime and drug addiction\u2014but the results of his non-Marvel projects have all been uneven.<\/p>\n

With The Odyssey, Holland was presented with the unique opportunity to work with Nolan, an auteur who\u2019s a box office draw unto himself. It offered him the chance to learn from a generational filmmaker and perform in front of a global audience, all without being tethered to franchise IP. As Peter Parker, Holland demonstrated that he could play a central character with a boyish charm and naivety\u2014and his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 made him a fitting choice to play Odysseus\u2019s son, Telemachus, in The Odyssey.<\/p>\n

Along with its tremendous box office success, The Odyssey has been a huge hit with critics and audiences alike, and it will surely be showered with Oscars and other accolades on the awards circuit early next year. Although he\u2019s just one piece of a star-studded ensemble cast, Holland has a pivotal role in the film. Homer\u2019s epic poem is, of course, a story about Odysseus and his 10-year journey back home to Ithaca after the conclusion of the 10-year Trojan War. But it\u2019s also a coming-of-age narrative for Telemachus.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeft as a \u2018little newborn baby\u2019 when Odysseus sailed for Troy, he must be 20 or 21 years old at the time of the poem\u2019s action, but he seems in many ways younger,\u201d Emily Wilson wrote of Telemachus in the introduction of her 2017 translation of The Odyssey. \u201cTo fight off the suitors and take control of the household himself, he would need great physical and emotional strength, a strong group of supporters, and the capacity to plan a difficult military and political operation\u2014none of which he possesses. Telemachus must complete several difficult quests in the course of the poem: to survive the mortal danger posed by the suitors; to mature and grow up to manhood; to find his lost father, and help him regain control of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holland’s youthful Telemachus accepts these responsibilities as a dutiful son. He\u2019s the perfect setup man to his costars, often sharing the screen with some of the film\u2019s best performances and helping them shine. He brings the ingratiating energy of an annoying younger sibling and tees up Pattinson to deliver a nasty turn as the villainous Antinous, Telemachus\u2019s would-be stepfather. Holland does the same for Anne Hathaway\u2019s Penelope, who eviscerates her wide-eyed son with exasperated, righteous rage when Telemachus pushes her to either give him the throne or finally accept a suitor to replace her long-lost husband. When Matt Damon\u2019s Odysseus returns home at last, Holland captures the subtle complexity of one of the film\u2019s most emotional moments, as Telemachus finally sees through his beggar’s disguise to recognize the father he’s never known. And then he steps aside to let Odysseus stick his superhero landing.<\/p>\n

Although Telemachus fought alongside his father near the end of Homer\u2019s Odyssey, slaying suitors to claim some glory of his own, in Nolan’s adaptation he allows his dad to face their enemies alone. The film doesn\u2019t provide Telemachus with the same chance to earn his rightful place on the Ithacan throne, just the meager opportunity to narrowly defeat a traitorous cowherd and deliver a sword to Odysseus. It\u2019s a creative decision that may better align with Nolan\u2019s vision of Odysseus and the burden he carries from his role in the Trojan horse deception, but it does sideline Holland for the film\u2019s grand finale.<\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s performance may be overshadowed by some of his costars, but he plays the supporting role well. However, not everyone who\u2019s seen The Odyssey has felt that way. With the exceptions of Nolan\u2019s faithfulness to the epic poem<\/a> and the historical accuracy of the helmets (among other bad-faith criticisms<\/a>), Holland\u2019s turn as the Ithacan prince may be the most divisive topic among critics and audiences. The internet has debated<\/a> whether he\u2019s a pleasant surprise or the weakest link in a cast of some of Hollywood\u2019s finest. Variety went as far as to rank 17 major performances<\/a> in the film \u2026 and position Holland dead last.<\/p>\n

Some of the negative discussion around Holland in The Odyssey could be rooted in the modern-day qualities that he possesses\u2014and it doesn\u2019t help his case that Nolan has him saying mom and dad in this movie either, all while he\u2019s using his Peter Parker American accent. There\u2019s also the fact that a Nolan title brings a certain level of prestige to a film that he hadn\u2019t experienced yet, and viewers could be grading him on a different rubric than they’ve used on his previous films. And perhaps most likely, it could stem from the audience\u2019s familiarity with Holland\u2019s performances as Spider-Man and the similarities that Telemachus shares with Peter Parker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MCU hero\u2019s coming-of-age arc in 2017\u2019s Spider-Man: Homecoming even finds young Peter on a similar journey into manhood, as Peter tries to prove himself capable of handling bigger responsibilities as a fledgling superhero while others around him keep telling him that he\u2019s only a kid. Like Telemachus, Parker desperately wants to be taken seriously. In 2019\u2019s Spider-Man: Far From Home, he\u2019s trying to escape the shadow of his father figure (Tony Stark), whose legacy looms over him. All three of Holland\u2019s Spider-Man movies have been set during Peter\u2019s high school days, and he\u2019s yet to graduate past that boyish, whimsical era of superhero adolescence.<\/p>\n

But regardless of how audiences grade Holland\u2019s performance in The Odyssey, working on a Nolan project can only be a net positive for the actor\u2019s career moving forward. And Holland has already started to apply his experience to how he approaches his superhero work and what he expects from his collaborators at Marvel Studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really able to lay down the law and say, \u2018We are not going to come to set and figure it out,\u2019\u201d Holland told GQ<\/a>. \u201c\u2018We need to know why we are making this movie beyond the fact that it\u2019s Spider-Man 4 and they make loads of money and we\u2019re going to just have a big summer. Why are we making this movie?\u2019 And [director Destin Daniel Cretton] was super instrumental in that, but it was just really great to constantly be calling up the studio and [producers] Amy [Pascal] and Rachel [O\u2019Connor], who I love, and be like, \u2018Well, Chris is doing it this way. This is how I think we should be doing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As its title suggests, Brand New Day represents a new beginning for Spider-Man\u2014in terms of both the character\u2019s story and how Marvel is approaching the latest entry in the franchise. Peter has finally outgrown high school; he\u2019s even stretching before fights<\/a>. Jon Watts\u2019s Spider-Man trilogy has concluded, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Cretton has stepped in to direct. And while it\u2019s still no Odyssey, Brand New Day is eschewing Marvel\u2019s typical overreliance on green screens to prioritize a greater emphasis on real-world locations and practical effects<\/a>. It all may lead to this character and franchise moving past its familiar coming-of-age tale.<\/p>\n

Holland has been playing Spider-Man since he was 18 years old, and back in 2021, he told GQ that \u201cif I\u2019m playing Spider-Man after I\u2019m 30, I\u2019ve done something wrong.\u201d That time has arrived, and there\u2019s no apparent end in sight for Holland\u2019s Spidey tenure. Even though only five years have passed since the actor made the statement, it now reads like the kind of thing one would say in the hubris of their 20s, when turning 30 feels both distant and daunting. When GQ asked him about the quote, Holland admitted that his feelings have changed since then: \u201cI think the truth is that playing Spider-Man has been the joy of my life. I now kind of stand on the plinth of like, I\u2019ll do it for as long as they\u2019ll have me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After The Odyssey and Brand New Day, the question remains: Where will Holland go from here? And will he ever be able to shake the boyish image that he\u2019s just reinforced with his performance in The Odyssey? In the same GQ cover story, he described this double-feature experience as \u201cthis amazing moment where I feel like I got to hit the reset button and end the chapter of being a kid in Hollywood.\u201d And the actor has already signed on to several upcoming projects, all of which seem to signal this desire to embrace more mature roles.<\/p>\n

First up is the long-gestating Fred Astaire biopic<\/a>, which was announced five years ago but is finally nearing production. Holland has begun his rehearsals for the film, going back to his Billy Elliot roots as he prepares to perform the movie\u2019s dance numbers himself. He\u2019s also been attached to star in Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 American Speed<\/a> alongside Austin Butler. As Deadline reported<\/a> in November 2024, the film is \u201cbased on the true story of the Whittington brothers\u2014three historically famous race car drivers, two of whom were part of the 1980s IMSA scandal, in which a number of drivers were charged with financing their racing activities with proceeds from drug smuggling, money laundering, or tax evasion.\u201d And finally, Holland has signed on to lead The Partner<\/a>, an adaptation of John Grisham\u2019s 1997 legal thriller novel. Directed by Jason Bateman, the film will see Holland portray a junior attorney who fakes his death to steal $90 million for a client.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will likely be awhile before any of these upcoming movies are released in theaters, and we may continue to see Holland suit up as Spidey in the interim, whether it\u2019s in one of the upcoming Avengers installments or a future Spider-Man sequel But Holland seems ready for whatever comes next. \u201cIt feels like the beginning of the next chapter of my life,\u201d Holland told GQ. \u201cI really feel like a young man now. I have so much amazing stuff happening in my personal life to take me through to the rest of my life, and I feel like I have a new perspective on where I want to exist in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Holland\u2019s ongoing press tour thrusting him into headlines<\/a> again after he puked during a recent episode<\/a> of Hot One and with Brand New Day set to arrive later this week, this Tom Holland summer is still far from over. But as the seasons change and the actor enters this new phase, we\u2019ll see just how much Holland is able to leverage this moment to shape the next stage of his career, and whether he\u2019ll truly be able to complete the coming-of-age journey he\u2019s always portraying on-screen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Daniel Chin<\/p>\n

<\/a>Daniel writes about TV, film, and scattered topics in sports that usually involve the New York Knicks. He often covers the never-ending cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.
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