In continuing the trend of casting the Marvel Cinematic Universe actor in roles that he is just outright wrong for, should the property ever see a major cinematic revival, The Mask of Zorro star Antonio Banderas has nominated Tom Holland to succeed him in the role of the titular Mexican swordsman.
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Banderas, who stands as the last actor to have portrayed the dashing rogue on the silver screen courtesy of his performances in 1998’s The Mask of Zorro and its 2005 sequel The Legend of Zorro, gave his support to Holland’s theoretical casting during a recent interview with comicbook.com
Digressing slightly from their main topic of Dreamworks’ upcoming Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, in which the actor plays the film’s titular, Zorro-inspired feline hero, staff writer Nicole Drum inquired as to Banderas’ thoughts on a possible revival of the IP.
In turn, the actor opined that rather than ride again himself, he would prefer to see Holland take up the mantle instead.
“I did Uncharted with him and he’s so energetic and fun and he’s got this spark, too,” said Banderas. “Why not?”
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However, far from completely shutting the books on his time in the domino mask, Banderas added that he would be open to reprising his role as Zorro in a ‘passing of the torch’ type story.
“Yes, I would,” he told Drum. “I would consider that possibility.”
“I think during today’s interviews [given as part of the press circuit for the aforementioned the Puss in Boots: The Last Wish], I said something like that to somebody,” he continued. “I said that if they call it Zorro, I will do what Anthony Hopkins did in the first movie and so give the torch to somebody else.”
Unfortunately for Banderas, as noted above, Holland’s casting as a ‘leading man of Hollywood’ has been an entire facade from the moment he stepped outside of Peter Parker’s webbed tights.
From Cherry, to Chaos Walking, to the disaster known as Uncharted, every time a film puts its hopes primarily on Holland’s shoulders, it tends to fall flat.
Admittedly, Holland’s timid, perpetually-looking-like-he’s-hiding-a-frog-in-his-mouth demeanor serves him well as the MCU’s web-slinger.
Bringing to life Peter’s more nerdy, insecure sides while throwing in just the right amount of unbridled anger, there’s an admitted reason his take on the character has been relatively well-received (he’s at least faring better than any of the Eternals).
However, what studios seem to fail to realize is that the moment you take Holland and put him in roles more provably appropriate for such actors as Nathan Fillion, audiences can see that the narrative that he’s any sort of ‘action star’ is nothing more than a marketing dream.
There’s also the possibility that, at this point in his career, Banderas no longer has an eye for quality projects.
After all, he did sign on for Uncharted.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish hits theaters on December 21st.
