Tom Holland Compares His Spider-Man Role To Marty McFly

05/30/2017 05:02 pm EDT

Spider-Man: Homecoming has been drawing a lot of comparisons to the high school films of the 1980s and that's no accident. Star Tom Holland is even trying to emulate one iconic '80s character in particular.

Holland says that director Jon Watts gave the cast homework in the form of classic '80's movies to watch before production began. It was in one of those films that Holland found his inspiration.

"I think that was one of the things that Jon set out to do and its just a reflection on him, as a director, that's he's getting this kind of a response from it," Holland tells Yahoo Movies. "He gave us a load of videos, old movies, to watch before starting shooting: Pretty in Pink, Back to the Future, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. My goal was to try and kind of be our generation's Marty McFly. That was what my all-time goal was, and I was actually lucky enough that a journalist said, 'Oh, you're kind of like Marty McFly in this movie.'"

Holland points out that grounding Spider-Man: Homecoming in these non-superhero classics helps make the movie stronger.

"One of the best things about this movie is if you stripped away all of the Spider-Man scenes, there's a really solid movie there without the superhero aspect about Peter growing up, going to school, struggling. So it's a nice balance between superhero and kid at high school."

Spider-Man: Homecoming currently has a 4.12 out of 5 ComicBook User Anticipation Rating, making it the seventh most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com readers. Let us know how excited you are about Spider-Man: Homecoming by giving it your own ComicBook User Anticipation Rating below.

Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, young Peter Parker (Tom Holland) returns home to live with his Aunt May. Under the watchful eye of mentor Tony Stark, Parker starts to embrace his newfound identity as Spider-Man. He also tries to return to his normal daily routine -- distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just a friendly neighborhood superhero. Peter must soon put his powers to the test when the evil Vulture emerges to threaten everything that he holds dear.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is directed by Jon Watts, from a screenplay by Jonathan M. Goldstein & John Francis Daley and Watts & Christopher Ford and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, and stars Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr.

Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in theaters July 7, 2017.

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