When Sony Pictures decided to team up with Marvel Studios, The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield was out and the hunt was on for a new Peter Parker.
Following an extensive search, relative unknown Tom Holland was tapped to play the iconic superhero in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. He'd later return in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Next up for Holland is Spider-Man 4 and Avengers: Doomsday. We'll surely see more of him beyond that and the actor reflected on learning he'd been cast as the wall-crawler in a recent interview.
As you might imagine, it was a day Holland will never forget...
"I found out on Instagram. Marvel had posted a picture of Spider-Man, and it said something like, 'Go to our website to find out who the next Spider-Man is,'" he recalled. "Now, at this point, I've been waiting maybe six weeks to find out whether I've go it. And obviously at that point, you go, 'I didn't get it' because they would've called me. They'd have a little bit of respect."
"And I went on their website and it said, 'We're proud to announce that our next Spider-Man is Tom Holland' and I remember slamming my computer down and sort of sitting there,'" Holland continued. "I called my agents. They had heard the news. They didn't even know. And then the President of the studio called me up and gave me the news as if I didn't know."
Asked if Kevin Feige was aware that he already knew he'd be the next Spider-Man, the actor joked, "You didn't think an eighteen-year-old kid scouring the internet isn't gonna find out?"
As noted, we expect to see a lot more of Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU over the coming years and it's pretty amazing - no pun intended - to see how far he's come since that Marvel.com story was posted way back in 2015 (we're sure those of you who have been visiting the site since then will remember).
In 2021, we spoke to Holland for Spider-Man: No Way Home and asked what he thought about filmmaker Joe Russo's comments that his Peter had become the face and soul of the MCU:
"I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m the face of the universe. I know that fans are really supportive and have responded massively to this franchise. I’m honoured that Joe thinks that, but the beautiful thing about the MCU is whoever is the leader, if there ever is a leader again, you’re never alone. You have so many people that you can rely on and lean on and people I’ve now worked with for years and years. I don’t necessarily feel those pressures, but should I feel those pressures, then yes, I’ll call Downey and ask him. I called him the other day for a piece of advice and he was very kind."
You can check out the full interview clip in the TikTok post below.