Tom Holland says one early cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was shaped heavily by audience reactions, but he admitted the approach ultimately fell flat.
As he prepares to return as Peter Parker, Holland shared that the new Marvel film went through multiple versions in the editing process before the team settled on the one that will reach cinemas.
According to the actor, one experiment involved gathering feedback from viewers who had watched the movie and then altering the film around those responses.
Speaking to Quotable, Holland explained how that version came together.
“What’s really interesting is, we’ve seen loads of different cuts of this movie, and one of the cuts was, they took all of the notes from all of the random people that saw the film, and they changed the movie.”
The idea was to reflect what viewers said they wanted, but Holland said that version drifted too far from the vision held by the filmmakers.
“When me and Destin and the producers watched that movie, we hated it,” he said. “It totally didn’t work, and it’s what the people were asking for. But it wasn’t quite what we wanted as the creatives.”
Holland’s co-stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, who return for the fourth Spider-Man film, shared his disapproval of the audience-driven cut. Director Destin Daniel Cretton and the filmmaking team ultimately steered the film back toward their original vision before its release.
He said the process underlined just how much a film can be transformed once it reaches the edit suite.
Even though that audience-led cut was abandoned, Holland said it still helped the team better understand how editing choices can reshape the story.
“We learnt lessons from that experience,” Holland said, adding: “A movie can change in a thousand different ways in the edit room.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks Holland’s fourth standalone outing as Spider-Man, continuing the run that started with 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film is set four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and follows Peter Parker living anonymously in a world that has forgotten him.
The film features returning cast members including Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, alongside new additions including Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, and Michael Mando as Scorpion. Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes over the franchise after Jon Watts helmed the previous three films.
Early reactions to the film have been positive. The movie currently holds a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising Holland’s performance and noting that the film delivers “a grounded Spider-Man tale” that moves away from multiverse storylines. The first trailer for the film reportedly passed 1.1 billion views within four days, making it one of the biggest movie-trailer debuts on record.
Although the role comes with intense scrutiny and major fan expectations, Holland has previously said he has enjoyed every part of playing the character.
He said: “We’ve played these characters for ten years, we’ve loved every minute of it.
“Any time you’re playing a character and there’s something new and fresh to bring to the table, it’s always so welcome, and it’s just like a really fun acting exercise.”
Alongside his Marvel return, Holland is also appearing in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem that released on July 17, 2026. In the film, Holland plays Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. The Odyssey features an ensemble cast including Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron.
Holland is also set to star in a Fred Astaire biopic directed by Paul King, which is scheduled to begin filming in January 2027. The actor has expressed his commitment to performing all of the dancing scenes himself without doubles. The film will mark Holland’s return to his dancing roots, as he originated the title role in Billy Elliot the Musical on the West End as a child.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is due to open in theatres on Friday, July 31, 2026. It will serve as the final MCU film before the release of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars in Phase 6.