Despite the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the popularity of its star-studded cast, these actors aren’t guaranteed careers after they leave the MCU. Without the safety net of the Marvel logo, some of these stars will inevitably fall by the wayside when they hang up their cape and venture into original projects without an established fan base. Tom Holland hasn’t even left the MCU yet and he’s already struggling in this department.
Robert Downey, Jr. recently said, “There was a Spider-Man before Tom Holland and there will be a Spider-Man after Tom Holland. That’s facts, Tommo. Sorry.” Being Spider-Man is a great tool for Holland’s career right now, but just as there were Spider-Men before he came along, there will be Spider-Men long after he departs the role. If Holland wants to draw crowds of moviegoers without the use of red-and-blue spandex, his movies outside the Marvel canon need to start being a lot better.
Holland’s last three major movie releases – The Devil All the Time, Cherry, and Chaos Walking – have all disappointed because they failed to deliver on their promise. The actor also recently called his performance in the upcoming Uncharted movie “a mistake,” claiming that the film’s characterization of Nathan Drake was completely wrong, which should’ve been apparent at the script stage. If Holland’s movie stardom is going to last after he leaves the MCU in a couple of years, then he’ll need to get better at choosing scripts for non-Marvel projects.
While Marvel fans would undoubtedly be happy to keep watching Holland’s Peter Parker’s adventures with the Avengers for the next 30 years, the truth is that the character’s days in the MCU are numbered. Spider-Man is effectively on loan to Marvel Studios from Sony, the studio that owns the character’s film rights and wouldn’t give them up for the world. Back in the summer of 2019, when Spider-Man: Far From Home topped $1 billion at the worldwide box office and Sony felt it deserved a larger slice of the cheddar, the studio devastated Marvel fans across the world by yanking Spidey out of the MCU on a bombshell cliffhanger that may never have been resolved. Thankfully, Sony and Marvel eventually came to an agreement that would allow Holland’s Spidey to appear in a couple more MCU movies.
But this agreement just delayed the inevitable: the end of Holland’s time in the MCU is still nigh. If his star power is going to maintain its current trajectory, then he’ll need to start playing some memorable characters that can’t shoot webs out of their wrists. If Holland is only ever associated with Spider-Man, then he’ll drop off the radar the second he stops playing Spidey.
The great thing about being Spider-Man is that it’s made Holland an international star. In an age when “bankable” movie stars are becoming a thing of the past and intellectual properties are becoming the new stars, Holland is in the enviable position of being a recognizable actor. Audiences will check out a movie based on Holland’s involvement alone, just like they did with stars like Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie back in the day. Holland can capitalize on that and take on edgier, crazier, more original projects that might not see the light of day without the involvement of a nameable movie star.
A common problem with Holland’s recent bombs is that they start out with a great premise and then fail to deliver on it in the execution. The Devil All the Time is a pulpy crime story with a “Southern Gothic” tone, but it’s more interested in being dark and edgy than telling a captivating story. Cherry is a biopic of an army medic with PTSD who resorted to robbing banks to fund his opioid addiction. This could’ve been a powerful character study examining the opioid crisis, but in the final product, Holland’s committed performance as a conflicted addict is undermined by the Russo brothers’ formulaic approach.
Holland’s most recent effort, Chaos Walking, based on the YA series of the same name, squandered the interesting premise of a world with no women in which all human thoughts are involuntarily expressed as “Noise.” Both Holland and Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley bring their all to the infamously delayed sci-fi actioner, but it’s not enough to make up for a script that egregiously botches its premise.
With the release of Chaos Walking, Holland’s schedule is freed up except for Uncharted and, of course, Spider-Man: No Way Home. The actor is surely fending off script offers every day, and after suffering a hat trick of disappointments in the past 12 months (four disappointments if you count Pixar’s Onward becoming the first major box office bomb of the pandemic), he’ll need to choose carefully. It’s easy to be drawn in by a one-line elevator pitch because ideas are easy; the real trick is turning those ideas into an inspired, ironclad screenplay with well-rounded characters and razor-sharp story structure that will provide a reliable blueprint for a great movie. Those are the scripts Holland needs to get his hands on.
Holland’s a fantastic actor who’s clearly interested in challenging himself. With the magical combination of leading-man charisma and genuine pathos, he’s destined to enjoy a long post-Spidey career as a movie star, but it’ll only happen if he starts regularly appearing in movies outside the MCU that have the ability to capture the zeitgeist and get audiences talking without the use of superpowers.