Tom Holland Reveals Why He ‘Hated’ an Early Fan-Driven Cut of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”

Tommy McArdleFri, July 31, 2026 at 2:58 PM UTC

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Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New DayCredit: Jay Maidment -

Tom Holland says test screening feedback led to a disliked early cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Holland emphasizes the importance of balancing fan input with creative vision during the filmmaking process

The actor calls portraying Spider-Man a major responsibility and a chance to inspire young fans

Tom Holland says he’s been closely involved in shaping Spider-Man: Brand New Day — and that the film’s edit room was more experimental than fans might expect.

Holland, 30, told Quotable during a recent interview with costar and wife Zendaya and fellow star Jacob Batalon that an early cut of the fourth Spider-Man solo entry for Marvel Studios leaned heavily on feedback from test audiences — with surprising results.

“What’s really interesting is we’ve seen loads of different cuts of this movie, and one of the cuts, they took all of the notes from all of the random people that saw the film [in test screenings] and they changed the movie and then we watched it and we hated it,” Holland recalled. “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. But they learned lessons from that experience, so a movie can change in a thousand different ways in the edit room.”

Holland first appeared as Spider-Man/Peter Parker in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and has since appeared in the Avengers films in addition to his own Spider-Man franchise. Brand New Day picks up Peter’s story four years after 2021’s No Way Home. Holland has said he’s paid close attention to fan expectations for the new film — telling LADbible in September 2025 that he’d been “actively sifting through the internet and trying to best understand what it is that the fans want from a Spider-Man movie,” an approach he called a driving force in recent pitch meetings.

Michael Mando, Liza Colón-Zayas, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, Tom Holland, Tramell Tillman, Destin Daniel Cretton, Zendaya, Marvin Jones III, Jacob Batalon and Eman Esfandi on July 27, 2026Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Sony Pictures via Getty

“I think the producers, at times were like, absolutely sick of me, but I think it’s really important, because we make these movies for [the fans],” he added at that time.

In Brand New Day, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is largely operating solo as Spider-Man while his former best friends Ned (Jacob Batalon, 29) and M.J. (Zendaya, 29) finish college at MIT. After they graduate and return to New York City, Peter drifts back into their orbit as he and allies — including the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) — confront a mysterious, nearly invisible threat that only Peter seems able to sense. Meanwhile, Peter’s body begins a striking transformation: he develops the ability to naturally shoot webs.

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In an interview with PEOPLE at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere, Holland shared that “the biggest responsibility of making these movies” is giving young fans a role model in Peter Parker. “I’ve looked up to him for years and years,” he said. “He’s been a role model to me since I was a young kid, and even since I started playing him. So it’s a responsibility that I don’t take lightly, and something that I think is really important.”

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Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New DayCredit: Marvel

When Quotable asked Holland about the “burden” of navigating a lengthy, major film production like Spider-Man, he pushed back on the term.

“It’s definitely a lot of pressure, but to me it isn’t until that third week after the movie has come out,” he said. “You want to see what people think, and these movies evolve so much between wrapping photography and coming out in the theater, so there’s a lot of unknowns as actors. That’s why it’s so important that we trust the filmmakers, because once we’re done on set, it’s now down to them.”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”