Tom Holland has seen the viral deepfake inserting himself and Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr. into a scene from Back to the Future, jokingly admitting the “pretty amazing” use of technology had him considering legal action. YouTube user EZRyderX47 made the deepfake that has been viewed over five million times since it was uploaded on Feb. 14, imposing the faces of Holland and Downey over the faces and performances of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, who played time-traveling teen Marty McFly and wild-haired inventor Doc Brown, respectively. During the premiere for Disney-Pixar’s Onward, where Holland stars opposite Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame co-star Chris Pratt, Holland confirmed he’s seen the video:
“My immediate reaction was, ‘Someone stole my face!’ I was like, ‘I should call my lawyer, because that’s definitely illegal,’” Holland told Access when asked about the video. “It’s pretty amazing.”
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Despite the convincing nature of the video inserting the Spider-Man star into the 1985 classic, Holland has no intention of taking over Fox’s role in a Back to the Future remake.
“I sent it to Robert and was like, ‘So when do we start shooting?’” Holland said. “No, that’s one of the only perfect movies ever made, and we couldn’t do it any better.”
Holland then acted out the line used in the deepfake, where McFly learns his future mother — Lorraine (Lea Thompson), a high schooler in 1955 — has “the hots” for him.
Incidentally, Holland used Fox’s sometimes excitable Marty McFly as an influence on his rebooted take on Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Holland’s first solo outing as the character after swinging into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War.
“I think that was one of the things that [director Jon Watts] set out to do and it’s just a reflection on him, as a director, that’s he’s getting this kind of a response from it,” Holland told Yahoo Movies in 2017. “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.’”
In Onward, Holland and Pratt star as elf brothers who embark on a quest when a magic spell goes awry. Onward opens March 6.
