by Nathaniel R
With Spider-Man Far From Home owning the holiday weekend, the just turned 23 year old Tom Holland is back in the spotlight. He's already been a professional actor for 11 years, starting with a West End production of Billy Elliott in 2008, where he first played Billy's best friend and later graduated to the lead role to rave reviews. His first gig in front of cameras (The Impossible, 2012) also prompted critical superlatives and he was well on his way to major stardom. We were rooting for him from then on and knew he would be the perfect Spider-Man before he was cast. Thankfully, the MCU made a good decision there and the rest has been history.
So let's take a trip back through his shortcareer via movie posters. How many of his 12 key screen projects (11 features and one major television event) have you seen? The posters are after the jump...
Act 1 Introducing Tom Holland
THE IMPOSSIBLE (2012) principal role as the son of Ewan McGregor & Naomi Watts
HOW I LIVE NOW (2013) supporting role
WOLF HALL (2015) supporting role
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (2015) supporting role
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) extended cameo of sorts... but what an introduction! He was beloved as Spidey immediately
EDGE OF WINTER (2016) principal role as the son of Joel Kinnaman
Act 2 Household Name Status via the MCU
(but the talent suggests that'll continue after he hangs up the Spidey-tights )
THE LOST CITY OF Z (2016/2017) act two supporting role as the grown son of Charlie Hunnam
PILGRIMAGE (2017) supporting role
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017) His first true leading man role.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018) supporting role
AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) supporting role
SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019) the lead
Act 3... what's next?
So, 12 films into his career, though his face has occassionally been a small element of a movie poster, Hollywood has yet to use his famous mug to brand the films or lure audiences. One wonders when they'll go there since he's now very well liked and familiar. Or has Hollywood finally accepted that they've allowed fictional characters and franchises alone to be the "star" of movies?
At any rate he's hotly in demand now (sorry but we've been dying to use those photshoot gifs above --His Spidey-sense was tingling about that practical effect on the shoot.)
Holland does voicework for three upcoming animated features: Spies in Disguise (2019), The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (2020) and Pixar's Onward (2020) so we might not see his face onscreen for another year. Sometime in 2020 he'll return with face for the promising sounding sci-fi project Chaos Walking (2020) which he's already shot and which was co-written by Charlie Kaufman (!!!) and directed by Doug Liman (who is hit and miss but when he hits, we get action classics like The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow). After that who knows but there are two announced projects as well including Cherry (2020), a drama from his Avengers directors Joe & Anthony Russo and the video-game adaptation Uncharted (supposedly Christmas 2020) so if those stay on course, they're his next live-action projects. In both cases he's a lead without a mask, so his face will presumably finally be used to sell a movie.
Once this intense Spider-Man / Avengers promotion year wraps up his schedule will likely loosen up a bit. We wouldn't be half surprised to see him take a quick supporting role or two in adult dramas that won't take up too much of his time. Or better yet, a film musical, to capitalize on his dance training... though that would require more of a time investment. Those two things are what we would be looking for for him if we were in his management team both to remind people what a tremendous versatile actor he was from the jump and that there is so much more to him than franchises. The time is right to diversify because by the mid 2020s he'll be in the prime age range for A list male leads of any genre.