Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Audition Left Studio Executives Stunned

Marvel stuntman James Young recently opened up and recounted how the experience of watching Tom Holland audition for Captain America: Civil War left Marvel Studios executives stunned. The actor has played the role of Peter Parker ever since the third Captain America movie debuted in theaters in 2016. More recently, he can be seen in his own third solo outing with the debut of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The journey to get Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a long one for Marvel Studios. With the rights to the character owned by Sony, Marvel struck a deal to get Peter Parker into the MCU following the end of The Amazing Spider-Man run of films. The move away from the Andrew Garfield continuity created an opening to recast the character and soft reboot Spider-Man, which led to his eventual introduction in Captain America: Civil War. In Civil War, Peter is introduced as a young high school student early in his career as Spider-Man and enlisted by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) for a battle to help enforce the Sokovia Accords.

Six years have passed since Holland entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Spider-Man, and he has since gone on to become one of the major faces of the franchise. Young recently opened up about Holland’s audition for the role during an appearance on the Corridor Crew YouTube Channel and discussed how Holland’s performance in his audition with Chris Evans stunned the executives watching. Young said:

They had the actors come in in the underwear Spider-Man suit, the one he wears in the first movie. They did this whole sequence of ‘Hey that shield doesn’t obey the laws of physics at all,’ they did the whole thing… Chris came in on his day off. Tom goes ‘Hey Joe, would you mind if I take my own entrance?’ and I just feel Kevin, Joe, and all of them go ‘Huh?’ to me, and Tom Holland proceeds to skip and throw the most perfect side flip. Straight past Chris Evans, lands on his mark, goes “Hey Cap, how you doing?” Spins around, ‘You like my suit?’ All you heard was jaws… I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes. This kid just came in, and that’s Peter Parker.

Even with the eyes of Kevin Feige and Joe Russo on him, Holland still managed to nail the perfect Peter Parker performance in his audition and leave them stunned. Based on Young’s recollection, much of this success seems to lay in that Holland went the extra mile and landed a perfect flip while still staying in character with Chris Evans as Captain America. In the years since landing Spider-Man, Holland (a trained dancer and acrobat) has used this ability to his advantage in the action genre, showing incredible physical and acting prowess in the Spider-Man movies, as well as the recent Uncharted adaptation at Sony.

It will undoubtedly be interesting for audiences to see how Holland evolves his persona as he progresses through his acting career. His ability to nail the young and energetic side of Peter Parker clearly helped him seal the role when the time came to cast him in Captain America: Civil War. That said, as Holland has grown up, so too has Peter, with the finale of No Way Home solidifying him as a much more traditional Spider-Man compared to what had been seen in his previous MCU movies.

Source: Corridor Crew