Tom Holland has admitted that a different version of Spider-Man: Brand New Day fell completely flat. The actor revealed that he and his co-stars “hated” one particular cut assembled after the Marvel studio scrambled to incorporate audience feedback.
Tom Holland says an early cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day ‘totally didn’t work’
Holland explained to Quotable just how dramatically a blockbuster can transform in the editing room. The creative team screened multiple versions of Spider-Man: Brand New Day during post-production, but one attempt to please test audiences backfired spectacularly. “What’s really interesting is, we’ve seen loads of different cuts of this movie, and one of the cuts was, they took all of the notes from all of the random people that saw the film, and they changed the movie,” Holland said. “And then, we watched it, and we hated it.”
The actor stressed that the rejected version represented exactly what test audiences requested. Yet it strayed so far from the filmmakers’ intentions that it collapsed under its own weight. “It totally didn’t work. And it’s what the people were asking for, but it wasn’t quite what we wanted as the creatives,” Tom Holland added. “But they learned lessons from that experience. So, a movie can change in a thousand different ways in the edit room.”
The process Holland describes mirrors a common Hollywood tension. Studios regularly screen rough cuts for random audiences to gauge reactions, but deciphering that feedback requires careful judgment. An audience might articulate what they want without understanding what actually serves the story. The challenge lies in separating useful notes from noise.
Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, who return alongside Holland, reportedly shared his disappointment with that particular cut. The trio’s reaction signalled to the team that the film had veered off course. Director Destin Daniel Cretton and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers ultimately steered Spider-Man: Brand New Day back toward their original vision.
