Who Replaced Tom Holland As Spider-Man In What If…? Episode 5?

Warning: SPOILERS for Marvel’s What If…? Episode 5 – “What If… Zombies!?”

Tom Holland doesn’t play Spider-Man in Marvel’s What If…?episode 5 and here’s who replaced him as the voice of the amazing web-slinger instead. What If…? episode 5 adapts the popular Marvel Zombies comics for the MCU and, although Tom Holland is absent, there is no lack of major stars voicing their MCU characters.

For “What If… Zombies!?”, Chadwick Boseman returns for the second time as T’Challa/Black Panther, as do Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier and Danai Gurira as Okoye. In addition, Mark Ruffalo, Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Paul Bettany, David Dastmalchian, and Jon Favreau return to voice Bruce Banner/Hulk, Hope Van Dyne/Wasp, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Sharon Carter, Vision, Kurt, and Happy Hogan, respectively. Set during the time of Avengers: Infinity War in MCU Phase 3, the superheroes are all that’s left when a virus brought back from the Quantum Realm infests the planet and turns everyone, including Avengers like Iron Man, Captain America, and Hawkeye, into zombies. Yet, despite the global calamity, Spider-Man remains a beacon of hope and optimism as the heroes race to find a cure to save the world.

In What If…? episode 5, Hudson Thames steps in to voice Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Thames is a 27-year-old actor and musician who starred in The Secret Life of an American Teenager, Malibu County, and he portrayed Elton John in American Soul. Thames may be best known for appearing in Mad Men season 6 where his character, Mitchell Rosen, is drafted to Vietnam. Mitchell is the son of Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardinelli), who was Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) mistress and neighbor in Mad Men season 6. In his MCU debut, Thames does a convincing job mimicking Tom Holland’s enthusiastic Queens, New York accent and it could even be a surprise to some fans that it isn’t Tom Holland voicing Spider-Man in “What If… Zombies!?”

Marvel Studios invited all of its main actors to return for What If…? but, unfortunately, Tom Holland is one of the big names who didn’t return. The list of What If…?’s holdouts include Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Dave Bautista as Drax, and Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America. However, Josh Keaton, who played Skinny Steve Rogers in What If…? episode 1, does return to provide the voice (and fearsome growls) of Zombie Captain America in What If…? episode 5.

As for why Tom Holland didn’t reprise his signature role as Spider-Man, it’s likely that the actor was indeed sidelined by scheduling conflicts. Holland is one of the most in-demand young actors in Hollywood and, when What If…? season 1 was in production, Holland was starring in several films, including The Devil All The Time, Cherry, Chaos Walking, and Tom also voiced Ian Lightfoot in Disney/Pixar’s Onward. Holland was also in production for the live-action adaptation of the video game Uncharted in which he stars as Nathan Drake. Tom Holland likely would have loved to return as Spider-Man in What If…? but he is also playing the wall-crawler in live-action in the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. Luckily, Hudson Thames’s portrayal of Spider-Man in What If…? episode 5 is very convincing.

Marvel’s What If…? streams Wednesdays on Disney+.

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