‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Cast Reveals Their Movie Inspirations

Spider-Man: Homecoming cast members Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Jacob Batalon (Ned) and Laura Harrier (Liz) participated in a Q&A panel at Phoenix, Arizona’s ACE Comic Con, where the young stars were asked which movies helped inspire their journeys into acting and their eventual work on the John Hughes-inspired Homecoming.

“It’s funny, because I actually really liked Not Another Teen Movie,” Batalon answered. “Chris Evans in that was ridiculously funny for some reason.”

“So funny,” Harrier said.

“I love him, he’s so funny,” Holland added.

“It was such a 2000’s feeling movie, it was so in the time and that didn’t make me want to become an actor per se, but I definitely want to be cool like that,” Batalon explained.

“I mean, I loved Mean Girls,” Harrier said, inspiring cheers from the crowd. “And I also loved that our movie wasn’t Mean Girls, and Liz wasn’t Regina George. But yeah, that was a big one for my childhood.”

“I love Mean Girls,” Holland said, going on to answer the kind of movies he enjoys.

“So many, so many. I mean, Spider-Man is so unique in the way that he moves, there’s nothing else really like it,” Holland answered.

“But yeah, action movies, the old James Bond movies, the Mission: Impossible movies, all those things I love,” Holland said. “I love action movies, and for me, movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Back to the Future, those are my movies, that’s what we wanted to do [in Spider-Man: Homecoming]. And that’s what [director] Jon Watts did so well, and I’m really glad we were able to do that.”

First-time Marvel director Watts took inspiration from seminal ’80s teen comedies like Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club, while Holland’s Peter Parker performance was inspired by Back to the Future leading man Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox).

“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,” Holland said of the cast’s “homework” handed down by the director.

“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.’”

Spider-Man: Homecoming grossed $880 million worldwide. An untitled sequel opens July 5, 2019.