Spider-Man: No Way Home Star Tom Holland Says He Wants The Future Of Spider-Man To Be “More Diverse” And “Something Different” Than Peter Parker
John F. Trent
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Spider-Man: No Way Home star Tom Holland recently expressed his opinion that he’d like to see the future of Spider-Man be “more diverse” and “something different” than the white male character of Peter Parker.
Los Angeles, CA Dec. 13, 2021: Zendaya and Tom Holland attend the World Premiere of Columbia Pictures SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME at the Regency Village and Bruin Theaters.
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Holland’s comments came in the lead-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought in a walloping $260.1 million at the domestic box office and a global gross of $600.5 million in its opening weekend.
While discussing the future of the Spider-Man franchise, Holland told People, he might be ready to say goodbye, “I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve been so grateful to Marvel and Sony for giving us the opportunity and keeping us on and allowing our characters to progress. It’s been amazing.”
He added, “And that’s why for me, I don’t want to say goodbye to Spider-Man — but I feel like we might be ready to say goodbye to Spider-Man.”
Holland then went on to claim, “I don’t want to be responsible for holding back the next young person that comes in who deserves it just as much so.”
Tom Holland stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures’ SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.
Speaking specifically to the future of the franchise, he said, “I would love to see a future of Spider-Man that’s more diverse — maybe you have a Spider-Gwen or a Spider-Woman.”
“We’ve had three Spider-Mans in a row; we’ve all been the same. It’d be nice to see something different,” he said.
Tom Holland at the Uk Photo Call of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Sunday 5 December 2021, at Old Session House in central London, UK.
Photo: Joel Ryan/ Sony Pictures Entertainment
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This isn’t the first time Holland expressed a desire for the Spider-Man franchise to move on from Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Back in November he told GQ, “Maybe it is time for me to move on. Maybe what’s best for Spider-Man is that they do a Miles Morales film.”
“I have to take Peter Parker into account as well, because he is an important part of my life,” he added. “If I’m playing Spider-Man after I’m 30, I’ve done something wrong.”
Tom Holland at the Uk Photo Call of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Sunday 5 December 2021, at Old Session House in central London, UK.
Photo: Joel Ryan/ Sony Pictures Entertainment
However, he also told Entertainment Weekly that he had already had some ideas for a second Spider-Man trilogy saying, “I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you’d be seeing a very different version. It would no longer be the Homecoming trilogy. We would give it some time and try to build something different and tonally change the films.”
“Whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But we were definitely treating [No Way Home] like it was coming to an end, and it felt like it,” he added.
Spider-Man hanging on in Columbia Pictures’ SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.
A Spider-Woman film is reportedly in development with Olivia Wilde tapped to direct. Wilde talked about what she aims to do to the superhero genre during an appearance on the Shut Up Evan podcast back in September 2020.
She specifically claimed she was going to reframe the superhero stories stating, that she felt it was an honor to be “amongst his wave of women who are showing up and saying, ‘We are not only going to step in and try and tell this story like men do, we’re actually going to reframe the stories themselves.’”
Sony is also creating a sequel to their Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse film that featured Miles Morales. That sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One, is expected to arrive in theaters on October 7, 2022.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (PART ONE).
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As for the idea of changing Peter Parker, Stan Lee, the character’s creator alongside Steve Ditko, had some strong thoughts on the matter that he shared back in June 2015.
Lee stated, “I wouldn’t mind if, Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way. But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that.”
“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume, and that’s a good thing,” he added.
Source: The Amazing Spider-Man #33
He would continue, “It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that. Latino characters should stay Latino. The Black Panther should certainly not be Swiss. I just see no reason to change that which has already been established when it’s so easy to add new characters.”
“I say create new characters the way you want to. Hell, I’ll do it myself,” he concluded.
PARIS, FRANCE – November 28 : TOM HOLLAND and ZENDAYA pose in the Ballon dOr Ceremony Paris, France.(Photo by Olivier Vigerie/Sony)
What do you make of Holland’s thoughts on the future of the Spider-Man franchise? Do you want “something different” and “more diverse” or do you want more tales about Peter Parker, Spider-Man?
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