Tom Holland Plans to Take a Break Before Spider-Man 4

It looks like Tom Holland will be taking a break before getting to work on Spider-Man 4 (AKA the yet-untitled Spider-Man: No Way Home sequel). The words come from Tom Holland himself and seem to answer months and months of speculation about what the future of Holland’s career as Spider-Man will be. There was a lot of uncertainty in the air going into No Way Home, as the entire nature of the deal between Sony Pictures and Disney-Marvel seemed uncertain – but now Spider-Man: No Way Home has made $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office (and counting). That certainly changes things… doesn’t it?

Tom Holland is still out on the road to promote his next film, an adaptation of the video game series Uncharted. When asked by CinePOP if he will be going from promoting Uncharted right back to putting on the Spider-Man costume for Spider-Man 4, Tom Holland made it unequivocally clear: he’s taking a break from the Marvel movie franchise:  

“I am going back to shoot a TV show for Apple, which I’m really excited about… But I can confidently say that after I finish that TV show, I will be taking a break.” 

If anyone deserves to take a break right now, it’s definitely Tom Holland. The young actor has been on non-stop tear in the last few years, knocking out three Spider-Man movies and three Marvel event films (Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity Wars & Endgame) since the mid-2010s. When not helping re-introduce Marvel’s biggest icon character to the world, Holland has taken a shot at a wider spread of genres, from dramatic thrillers (Cherry), to prestige pics (The Devil All the Time), to attempts at new franchise success through Uncharted. 

At the same time, training for, filming – then traveling and promoting these films is all a massive toll on Tom Holland. One look at the press interviews for Uncharted pretty much reveal how worn out the young man is, after the back-to-back world tours to promote both Spider-Man: Now Way Home and Uncharted. Give the kid a break. 

Tom Holland was hinting that he would be taking a break from Spider-Man well before Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters:

“I think, for me, as the guy that plays Spider-Man… I think what’s important is that he needs to take a break,” Holland told CBM. “We need to allow the audiences to let him breathe and figure out tonally how we’re going to bring this character back, if we bring this character back. You know, I think him popping up for a cameo would defeat the purpose…. I think what we need to do with Spider-Man is let it breathe and almost let the audience tell us what they want.”

That’s a fair point Holland makes: After Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel fans indeed have some complex wishes for the live-action Spider-Verse. Those wishes include possible new franchise branches for both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man characters – as well as all the big MCU hopes fans have for Holland’s Spider-Man (Kingpin). 

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters. Uncharted will be in theaters on February 18th.