Spider-Man 3 Brings Tom Holland Full Circle to His Marvel Studios Start

Six years after front-flipping into his audition for a rebooted Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, star Tom Holland is back where it started for Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man 3. After a process of self-taping and screen tests opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, Holland won the role of a 15-year-old Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following his MCU debut in Civil War, Holland led Spider-Man: Homecoming before reprising the role in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. In December, Holland completes his first Spider-Man trilogy with the untitled threequel pairing him with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).

“We started shooting Spider-Man 3 a few months ago, which had been crazy and really weird because we’re shooting it back in Atlanta. That’s where I did my audition for Spider-Man, and we’re actually shooting [Spider-Man 3] in the stage where I did my audition,” Holland said during an Instagram telethon hosted by Chris Pratt and benefitting Greater Good. “It’s like a really weird full-circle story of walking through the same door I walked through as an 18-year-old kid, like, nervous, like, ‘Oh my god, I hope I get this job!’ And then walking through the door at 24, making the third movie, loving life, confident, enjoying everything that’s happening for me.”

“So, it’s been amazing, dude,” Holland told his Avengers co-star. “It’s been awesome.”

Marvel Studios casting director Sarah Finn and her team screened more than 7,500 tapes in their search for Spider-Man, according to Homecoming executive producer Eric Carroll.

Other hopefuls who made it to the final stages of screen-testing included Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game), Judah Lewis (Demolition), Matt Lintz (Ms. Marvel), Charlie Plummer (Boardwalk Empire), and Charlie Rowe (Red Band Society). The young actors performed these final auditions for Spider-Man producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal and Civil War directors Anthony and Joe Russo.

“Sony, Marvel, Kevin and I all knew that for Peter Parker, we had to find a vibrant, talented young actor capable of embodying one of the most well-known characters in the world,” Pascal told Marvel.com when announcing Holland as the new Spider-Man in 2015. “With Tom, we’ve found the perfect actor to bring Spider-Man’s story into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

In 2017, Holland revealed he learned he won the role after coming across an official Marvel notice on Instagram.

“I basically had been auditioning for about five months and after my final audition they said, ‘You’ll find out tomorrow.’ Fast forward six weeks I was still waiting, still waiting, then one day Marvel just posted on their Instagram, ‘Go to our website to find out who the new Spider-Man is.’ And that’s it, I just found out online! They didn’t call me up or anything,” Holland said on Ellen. “I called my agents and they were like, ‘This is amazing.’ And then Kevin Feige finally rang me and said, ‘I’ve got some great news, you’re gonna be Spider-Man.’ And I was like, ‘I know, Kevin. You put it on Instagram!’”

Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 swings into theaters on December 17.