Callum Ward
Tom Holland is without a doubt one of modern Hollywood’s most recognizable names. From his leading role as Spider-Man in the MCU to his highly publicised relationship with fellow star Zendaya and even his more recent expansion into business with his alcohol-free beer brand, Bero, you would be hard-pressed to find someone with at least a moderate interest in cinema and celebrity culture who hasn’t heard of the British actor.
His well-received run as everyone’s favourite web-slinger massively elevated his stardom, however, it has also slightly limited his trajectory as both audiences and critics often struggle to see past the superhero persona. Holland has tried to shift this trend in recent times by taking on more dramatic projects, but these projects have more than often been poorly received by critics, despite Holland’s excellent performances.
This has resulted in a situation in which, despite being an extremely recognizable name in the Hollywood machine, Holland’s unique career trajectory has resulted in him being a bit of an underrated star in the industry, and one whose career is at a bit of a crossroads at this moment in time. In this article, I am going to break down Holland’s career so far, assess how we have gotten to this point, and look at what the future holds for the talented Brit.
Holland’s career dates back to the mid to late 2000s when he first began to make a name for himself on the West End as a member of the Billy Elliot: The Musical cast. After undertaking two years of training in ballet, tap dancing and acrobatics, he initially landed the role of Michael Caffrey, Billy Elliot’s best friend, in June 2008. By the end of that year, he had been promoted to the titular role. He would stay in the show until 2010, honing his performance and acrobat/dance skills throughout which would eventually be pivotal to his role as Spider-Man, but before that, he would have his first taste of a full-scale Hollywood production in 2012’s The Impossible.
Set during the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, The Impossible offered Holland the chance to really flex his dramatic chops and, despite only being 14 during filming, his performance was extremely well-received with The New York Times calling him “a terrific young actor.” The film itself was a critical and box office success and the future seemed extremely bright for Holland, so it was no surprise when he got his big break and entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). His entry into this world changed absolutely everything for Holland, both for better and for worse.
Holland’s introduction into the MCU as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man came in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, and he was instantly popular, bringing a youthful and energetic side to the web-slinger that had slightly been lost in the grittier The Amazing Spider-Man films. His short cameo in the film set the stage for his character to really stand front and center in his own films. Shortly and just a year later. audiences were treated to his first solo Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film was a critical and box office hit, earning an impressive 92% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer and making over $880 billion at the box office worldwide. This box office performance would be bettered by its sequel, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home, which generated over $1.1 billion worldwide and earned another strong Tomatometer score of 91%, but the best was yet to come.
The third instalment of Holland’s Spider-Man films, Spider-Man: No Way Home, saw the re-introduction of the two previous custodians of the character, Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, to team up with Holland’s iteration in what was a Spider-Man lovers dream. Once again, the film was reviewed extremely positively, earning the highest Tomatometer rating of the trilogy with an incredible 93% and earning an unbelievable $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office to end the year as the highest-grossing film by a gap of over $1 billion. By this point, the decision-makers at Sony were completely sold on the box office attraction of Holland’s name and looked to build another franchise with him as the lead with 2022’s Uncharted. Despite performing relatively well commercially, generating over $400 million worldwide, critics didn’t take to the film as much. It unfortunately reinforced the idea that Hollywood saw Holland as primarily an action-adventure lead as opposed to a serious actor, an perception that Holland himself would look to shift away from moving forward.
During the height of his commercial fame with Spider-Man and Uncharted, Holland had been taking on a number of projects in between, the majority of which were much more darker and dramatic roles. Films such as The Devil All The Time in 2020 and Cherry in 2021 were both extremely bold choices that subverted what audiences had come to expect from Holland, allowing him to showcase his range as a serious actor much more than his more commercially focused franchise projects. He followed these up with his first foray into television with the Apple TV+ limited series The Crowded Room, a psychological thriller inspired by the 1981 non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan in which Holland portrays a man with dissociative identity disorder—arguably Holland’s most extreme and dark role to date.
This segue from his more happy-go-lucky roles in Spider-Man and Uncharted was an very admirable career choice as Holland attempted to define himself as an actor outside of his franchise work. However, despite Holland’s powerful performances, the projects themselves received lukewarm or negative reviews. The Devil All The Time was the most well-reviewed but still only mustered a 65% on the Tomatometer, whilst Cherry and The Crowded Room both received underwhelming scores of 37% and 33% respectively. The problem for Holland in these projects was that critics more than often praised his performances as the standout aspects, but not the overall films or shows—trapping him in a cycle where his best work was often overshadowed by the project’s shortcomings and even occasionally seen as synonymous with them.
Upon completion of the filming of The Crowded Room, Holland chose to take a year away from the industry after the intensity of the shoot and production, something that has almost allowed for a bit of a reset for his career trajectory. He has opened up about his mental health struggles with fame and his decision to go sober, all of which have helped to slowly change his public perception away from just Peter Parker/Spider-Man. In addition, he has launched his own alcohol-free beer, Bero, demonstrating his business acumen and personal growth, another step away from his previous “boyish” image. As a result of his time away, openness about his struggles and step into the business world, the public perception of Holland is slowly changing, and whilst he is not quite out of the Spider-Man shadow just yet, his next big project may vastly help.
Whilst there will be a fourth instalment in the Holland Spider-Man series? The more exciting news is that he has also been cast as the lead in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, The Odyssey, which will follow the 10-year journey of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, as he travels a perilous journey home after the Trojan War. This role offers Holland the chance to showcase his ability on the largest scale in a serious, high-stakes role that will no doubt demand a lot of dramatic intensity. Following on from previous Nolan leads like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy and Christian Bale to name a few, The Odyssey offers Holland the biggest opportunity of his career to break away from the Spider-Man shadow and cement his status amongst Hollywood’s most talented leading men. Who knows, it could even lead to some Oscar buzz as Nolan films often tend to do.
Tom Holland has consistently delivered stand-out performances throughout his entire career and his ability as a dramatic actor has been evident from the very beginning with The Impossible. He has cemented himself as a fan-favourite iteration of Spider-Man, a role that has substantially changed not just his career but his life in general. Whilst his forays into dramatic projects since being cast as Spider-Man have often fallen short of expectations, his performances in all of them show what a gifted dramatic actor he can be. The Odyssey represents a potentially career-defining moment that could determine the trajectory that the rest of his career and offers him the chance to shake off past perceptions and once again prove, once and for all, that he is so much more than a franchise star, and instead one of the most talented working actors of his generation.
