Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- To accurately portray their role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Jon Watts.
- Despite initial studio skepticism, Spider-Man: Homecoming went on to gross over $880,900,000 worldwide.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is a 2017 American superhero film directed by Jon Watts, marking Spider-Man's first standalone film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe following his introduction in Captain America: Civil War. Tom Holland stars as Peter Parker, a fifteen-year-old Queens high schooler who juggles his ordinary teenage life β homework, Academic Decathlon, and his crush on senior Liz Allan β with his secret identity as Spider-Man. Eager to prove himself worthy of joining the Avengers, Peter investigates an underground weapons operation run by Adrian Toomes, known as the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton in a performance praised as one of the MCU's most compelling villains.
The film was the result of an unprecedented deal between Sony Pictures, which holds the film rights to Spider-Man, and Marvel Studios, allowing the character to appear alongside the Avengers for the first time. Director Jon Watts deliberately grounded the film in the John Hughes teen movie tradition, emphasizing Peter's high school experience and youthful enthusiasm over the darker origin story elements that had characterized previous Spider-Man franchises. Tom Holland, who was 19 during filming, brought an authentic teenage energy to the role that distinguished his Peter Parker from the older portrayals by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
The film earned $880 million worldwide and reinvigorated the Spider-Man franchise, establishing a new trilogy that would explore increasingly complex multiverse storylines in subsequent installments.
