Tom Holland Is Against Starring in a Back to the Future Reboot

A deepfake video reimagining Back to the Future as starring Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. went viral last week and while the crazy creation took the internet by storm it also got fans to talking about a remake of the iconic 1985 film. It’s certainly a tantalizing what if of sorts, thinking about the two Marvel stars taking on the roles originally played by Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, but fans might not want to get too far ahead of themselves. Holland is against starring in reboot of the beloved film.

Holland recently spoke with ET and, despite the popularity of reboots and revivals in entertainment, the Spider-Man star wants no part of it. As far as he’s concerned, Back to the Future is perfect already.

“I would not be interested because that is a perfect movie,” Holland said.

He went on to explain that he also already feels like he is his generation’s Marty McFly so there’s no need to literally play the role.

“When I first got Spider-Man, my goal was to be my generation’s Marty McFly,” Holland said. “When I was on the press tour, a journalist said to me, ‘You realize you’re like Marty McFly in this movie?’ And I was like, ‘[OK!] Done.’”

That sentiment about being his generation’s Marty McFly is one that Holland has spoken about before. In a 2017 interview with Yahoo Movies, Holland explained that director Jon Watts had the cast of Spider-Man: Homecoming watch various iconic 1980s movies as part of their preparation for the film, including Back to the Future.

“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 said. “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.’”

When it comes to a reboot or a sequel or anything additional in the Back to the Future franchise, though, there really isn’t any amount of fan interest that is going to make it happen, with Holland or another actor as Marty. Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis has definitively ruled it out.

A remake “can’t happen until both [co-writer Bob Gale] and I are dead,” Zemeckis said in 2015, during the 30th anniversary of the original movie that ultimately spawned a trilogy. “And then I’m sure they’ll do it, unless there’s a way our estates can stop it. I mean, to me, [a remake is] outrageous. Especially since it’s a good movie. It’s like saying ‘Let’s remake Citizen Kane. Who are we going to get to play Kane?’ What folly, what insanity is that? Why would anyone do that?”

Zemeckis reaffirmed that point in 2018, saying, “There will never, ever be, in the most absolutely way, a Back to the Future 4. There will be no more Back to the Future.”