Robert Pattinson Claims Tom Holland Manifested Spider-Man Role by Dressing as the Character Before Getting Cast

The Batman star Robert Pattinson has an interesting theory about how Tom Holland landed his Spider-Man role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to Pattinson, Holland manifested his Spider-Man success by dressing as the character before he was ever cast in the franchise. Pattinson appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote The Batman, and the host wasn’t bashful about chiding the English actor about why all of America’s big superheroes are now being played by British actors (Batman, Superman, Spider-Man…). Pattinson’s response was that Spider-Man had less to do with nationality than it did dedication…

“I actually worked with Tom Holland when I did this movie called The Lost City of Z a year ago. And I think he hadn’t even been cast as Spider-Man, and he was wearing a Spider-Man outfit when I was shooting that movie. And I was like ‘He really manifested that part!’” 

That little anecdote begged the immediate question: Why was Tom Holland ever sporting a Spider-Man suit when he wasn’t involved with the Spider-Man movie franchise? Pattinson never provides a firm answer to that question, only that he’s “99% sure” that Holland had not yet received the official Spider-Man casting call from Marvel’s Kevin Feige, and that the Lost City of Z cast was filming somewhere in “the middle of nowhere in Colombia, like with no one around… no one witnessed this but me.” 

Looking at the timeline, Robert Pattinson is a bit off in his assessment. Production on The Lost City of Z began in August of 2015 – that would’ve been two months after the June 2015 date that Tom Holland signed a six-picture deal with Marvel Studios to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the MCU. However, we all know that Holland’s Spider-Man made his MCU debut as a surprise cameo in Captain America: Civil War, which was released in the summer of 2016. Ergo, when Robert Pattinson was hanging out in Colombian jungles with Tom Holland in Summer 2015, Holland knew he was Marvel’s Spider-Man but couldn’t tell a soul about it. Clearly, he was preparing for the role while working alongside Pattinson, in the relative safety of an obscure location shoot. 

If nothing else, the odd part of this story isn’t so much what Tom Holland did on the set of The Lost City of Z – it’s that actors will watch each other behave in the weirdest of ways, and never ascertain the reason why the entire time they’re together. 

Tom Holland’s Uncharted movie hits theaters on Friday. Robert Pattinson’s The Batman hits theaters on March 4th.