Making Of SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY - Best Of Behind The Scenes, Stunts & Set Visit With Tom Holland

So how are you feeling? Yeah, I feel good, man. It's day one. My fourth ever day one on Spider-Man. You know, it's funny putting the suit on. It feels different this time, somehow. It's also the first time we've ever had fans on set for day one, so it's really exciting to share this with them. We've got some familiar faces on set. You know, I'm just going to do my best, hopefully get it right. No pressure. Peter Parker is always making the hard decisions, and in his mind, the best way to keep the ones that he loves safe is to keep them away from him. He kind of starts the film with this mindset of he has to push Peter Parker to one side and allow Spider-Man to take up his entire existence, and that creates a pressure and a stress. So not only is everyone else going to forget who Peter Parker is, but Peter Parker is going to forget who Peter Parker is. And that is his biggest fear, because that is the only thing that links him to the love of his life, his best friend, his aunt that sacrificed everything for him. So that, to me, is a really strong emotional drive for a character to follow, and I was just really happy that Destin was willing to tell something that is a little more mature and a little more complicated. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker's heart. I think it definitely wouldn't be the movie that it is without Tom Holland, not just because he's Spider-Man, but because of all the work that he's doing behind the camera. He cares so much about the character. He cares so much about the people who relate and connect to the character and wants to do justice to Peter Parker's story and what he means to so many people. So nothing gets past him, you know? He really is so committed and so thoughtful about every aspect of Spider-Man, but Peter Parker, too. When we decided that we were going to make Spider-Man Brand New Day, we said, what if we made a suit that was an homage to Toby's and Andrew's designs because now my Peter Parker had met those guys? So we kind of created a spider child of all three costumes. Everything had to fit into the world of Peter Parker, and we went back to that dumpster diver kid who's retrofitting old tech. So a result of that is this suit that I think is beautiful in its simplicity. The suit does have a bit of a tactile feel to it. We are embracing the folds and the wrinkles. When it moves, it's actually material, and you can see the human beneath the material. It gave a real purpose to why the suit looks the way it does. In this movie, we did this really cool thing to recreate all of these famous comic book covers. We're shooting at 420 frames per second, which is virtually impossible to act at 420 frames per second, and Tom had to do this kind of perfect uppercut reverse swan dive where we're yanking him up into the air towards the camera. It was a real awakening to how much control he has over every muscle in his body. He hit that perfect pose in two or three takes. That was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to do those things, and I think those shots look amazing. We kind of get to see glimpses of Ned and MJ's life without Peter, freshly graduated from college, moving back to New York, and starting a new chapter. What's so cool about this whole experience is that we grew up alongside of our characters, you know? It's been like 10 years of this. It was really fun to revisit a character that I've been able to grow up aside. Because of the ending of the last movie, nobody remembers who Peter Parker is, but his life as Spider-Man is going quite well. And he's been dedicating 100% of his life to cleaning up the streets of New York. Everybody is very happy with Spider-Man on the outside, but the reality is, every day after work, he goes home to an empty apartment and looks at the things that remind him of his old life. He has always had a pretty wonderful community around him. This is the first time that he is operating alone. At the same time, Spider-Man comes in contact with a very mysterious villain that can jump into the mind of another person. He doesn't know who he's fighting. You sure you want to do this, Scorpion? You think I'm Scorpion? And they're threatening his best friend, the love of his life, to get to him. Think I might go see how MJ's doing. And that is his biggest fear. I'm sorry, but you're in danger. You just have to trust me. Fine. There's twists and turns and things that fans will love, and I'm really excited to see what they think. Let's end this on a high note. John Brentha and Tom Holland, they adore each other. They push each other when they're on set. They support each other, allowing them a space to play. I am making sure the cameras are always rolling because even in between takes, there's often magic happening. You cannot fake the chemistry that these two have. I've known Tom here since he was 17 years old, and to see you as a man, it's filled me with so much pride and so much joy. There's no secret that I absolutely love John Brentha. He is one of the nicest people that I have ever met in this business. I've known Tom Holland now since he was 17 years old. We were in Ireland together when he was first auditioning for Spider-Man. Tom made my first Punisher audition tape, and I made his Spider-Man audition tape. And, you know, if anybody could have come and told us then that we'd be here now, I just think we'd be so thrilled, and you have to take a second to enjoy those moments in life. There's always been a drive for me to share the screen with him in these characters, and the fact that we get to do it now in this movie is so exciting. What the hell, Frank? You just hit me with a van! Put your whip in. Suit yourself. When we got to set and John and I started riffing and it kind of became this really funny big brother, little brother type relationship, Destin kind of just let us run with it. The type of chemistry that these two have bubbles up in unexpected ways that cannot be written, and it's my favorite rush when we have captured a moment that would not be able to be replicated. Brother. Gosh, there's so many things about the action that excites me. When you think of this particular character, he has a very distinct set of powers that are very practical when you think about it. And the acrobatics and the swinging has been done so well in so many movies, the fun challenge was how do we do it a little different? Working with Peng Zhang to bring his team on and coupling that with this incredible team here, this incredible team in London, who brought really new technology to allow us to do things that we've never done before. And when you have all of that on top of a number one actor, Tom Holland, who can do so many things that our stunt people, even that he does better than the stunt people, is like, it really doesn't get much better than that. Because there are... It's so rare to have an actor who can give a killer performance, but then to also have that actor be able to do some of the physical things that Tom can do is very extraordinary. He made the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the last movie, and he did that because he wanted to not just save the world, but protect his friends. And then in this movie, the villain is absolutely undoing every bit of that sacrifice that he's made in going after them. And I think what's so cool about what Destin has been able to achieve is that the movie feels bigger than anything we've ever made before, while maintaining the kind of New York roots, this heartfelt story between three of the bestest of friends. So I think that it's a real testament to who Destin is as a filmmaker. It was actually a long process of trying to figure out how we visualize a villain who is able to jump from person to person. And we didn't want to rely on visual effects for that, if at all possible. And so I brought in my good friend Nathan Kim, who is an amazing dancer and choreographer. And we gave him a bunch of dancers and put him in a room for a few days and said, can you just explore body movement and see if there's a way to translate this onto the screen? And they did a bunch of experiments, and we found a look that felt really good for this particular very odd power set. I've been a fan of the MCU, and especially Spider-Man. So to be joining that world is such an honor. I was introduced to Spider-Man through Tom's portrayal of Peter Parker. He was the Spider-Man I grew up with. And I think it just really speaks to my generation. And they just do such a good job of world building. And he's a character that is superhuman, but also just feels like a teenager at the same time. I was really worried about it, to be honest with you. Tonally, it's so different. And I am, I think, as we all are, enormously protective of the characters that we play and the fans that Frank means so much to. And he's not a guy looking for any way out. He's not a guy looking for any lightness. So I was worried about it, and what I was met with was that exact same sort of concern and care and level of commitment from Tom and from Amy and from Destin. And we really dove into the problem headfirst. I felt really heard. I felt really unbelievably collaborative. And I think what that resulted in is a very different Frank Castle in kind of all the best ways. And yeah, I can't wait to see it. I think a lot of our earlier years in this series have been very formative. And we've grown a lot through a lot of things that we've done. And I feel like I genuinely came in so green. I had no other job before this. And so it was very much my own learning experience. And I was very lucky to have everyone be supportive of me. And it's been just a really great journey for all of us. And Ned and MJ's lives after the spell and after the third movie, they've kind of just grown up without Peter and kind of lived full lives, sadly, without him. But Ned does sort of figure out how to track Spider-Man, and they've both kind of had this weird feeling of this missing link between them and Spider-Man. And so he's just naturally a curious guy, and he decides to track Spider-Man, no matter how creepy that sounds. And hopefully he has some sort of closure with that. It's a cautionary tale of the dangers of living your life on your own. And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is ask for help. So for me, getting your friends and family together to build a community and go and enjoy this movie in the theater is kind of the perfect way to experience this movie. The beautiful thing is watching a character accept that life changes. But every morning there is a brand new day, and that is equally as exciting. The brand new day of this movie, it isn't the beginning. It's in the last frame of this movie.