Tom Holland recounts how The Odyssey saved Spider-Man

After working on numerous projects for several years, Holland took a two-year break from filming, from late 2022 to early 2025, with the exception of a few weeks on stage in Romeo and Juliet in early 2024. He then filmed The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day back-to-back, with only two weeks between the two films. In an interview with GQ, he explains that his participation in Christopher Nolan's epic almost saved the Spider-Man production, allowing director Destin Daniel Cretton to join the project and have the necessary time to rework the script. "The Odyssey almost saved Spider-Man, because without it, we wouldn't have had Destin. He wouldn't have been ready to make the film when we were ready to move forward." We wouldn't have had those six months to develop the script with him and get it to where it is today. And I sincerely believe we made the best possible version of a Spider-Man film. So, even though it was hard for Sony to accept, I think in hindsight, they're very grateful that things turned out this way. This isn't going to please Marvel… The delay to Spider-Man isn't the only impact The Odyssey has had on the superhero film. It also reportedly influenced its production methods. Christopher Nolan is known for preparing and planning his films well in advance, which often allows him to deliver them on time and within budget, or even under budget. Marvel superhero films, on the other hand, are traditionally much more fluid, with scenes frequently rewritten on the day of shooting and extensive reshoots. Holland explains: "I think, coming from the Marvel universe, and I think this will upset Marvel a little, Nolan's level of preparation is unlike anything I've ever seen. There isn't a single question you can ask him that he can't answer immediately. He also has a pretty straightforward way of working." A bit of Nolan's method at Sony? Holland says he pushed the production to adopt an approach closer to Nolan's, and the studio listened: "I was really able to lay down the rules and say, 'We're not going to just show up on set and improvise. We need to know why we're making this film, beyond the fact that it's Spider-Man 4, that it's going to make a lot of money, and that we're just going to release a big summer movie. Why are we making this film?' Destin was instrumental in that, but it was great to be able to regularly call the studio, Amy Pascal and Rachel O'Connor, whom I adore, to tell them, 'Chris works this way. This is how I think we should do it.'" Now it remains to be seen whether the actor's new demands have truly made Spider-Man 4 a more watchable film than the previous installments. In any case, knowing why you're making a film and preparing it better has never hurt anyone, quite the opposite. The Odyssey will be released in France on July 15, 2026, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day will arrive in French theaters on July 29, 2026.