Tom Holland may be returning to Marvel and Sony for another round as Peter Parker, but his latest comments about superhero filmmaking suggest he is bringing a sharper sense of caution back with him. Speaking with Matt Damon and Robert Pattinson in a new GQ conversation tied to Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” Holland contrasted Nolan’s story-first approach with the way large-scale superhero movies can sometimes begin with spectacle before character has been fully worked out.
“I think sometimes when I’ve been making superhero movies, you sit in the meetings before the script has been written,” Holland said about his creative meetings with Marvel and Sony Pictures execs. “And they have these big set pieces already that they want to try and somehow squeeze into the movie, and it always damages the character arc because the set pieces feel unnecessary. And I feel like [Nolan] does the opposite of that, which is like, let’s figure out the story and the arc of the characters first, and then the scale can be additive to that.”
It is a notable comment coming from Holland, who has spent nearly a decade as one of the central faces of modern superhero filmmaking, as he’s clearly, whether intentional or not, shading some of his Marvel and Sony meeting eperiences. His next Marvel film, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and opens July 31, 2026. Marvel’s official listing describes the sequel as follows: Peter Parker, after the world has forgotten his identity, lives alone and fights crime in New York City.
Holland’s comments were framed around Nolan’s process on “The Odyssey,” which is a massive, $250 million production shot across six countries with Damon as Odysseus, Holland as Telemachus, and Pattinson as Antinous. The film, written and directed by Nolan, opens July 17, 2026, through Universal Pictures.
For Holland, the distinction seemed to come down to whether scale serves the story or starts to dictate it. Damon added to the thought and said Nolan’s set felt unexpectedly loose and instinctive despite the enormous machinery around it, praising the way the filmmaker and his crew would build shots out of rehearsal rather than prescribing everything in advance.
“Also, the way he shoots, it really feels like an independent movie,” Damon said. “It doesn’t have any of that machinery, like you’re saying, kind of overpowering it.” Holland also recalled a cave fight scene where Nolan shot both sides of the action in a single take rather than breaking it into tiny fragments, a contrast to superhero filmmaking, where Holland said a fight which in his Sony and Marvel experience was usually captured one-second beat by one-second beat.
The timing adds another layer to the comments. In the same GQ cover story, Holland credited “The Odyssey” with indirectly helping “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” saying the delay created room for Cretton to come aboard and helped the movie’s script reach a stronger place. “’The Odyssey’ almost saved ‘Spider-Man’ because we wouldn’t have had Destin,” he said, adding that the extra development time helped shape what he believes is “the best version” of a Spider-Man film they could have made.
“The Odyssey” opens in theaters on July 17, 2026. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” follows on July 31, 2026.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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