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Spider-Man’s Jacob Batalon Details Growth With Zendaya, Tom Holland

Watch: Spider-Man’s Tom Holland Shares How Wife Zendaya Makes Every Scene Better

With great power comes great friendship.

Indeed, though the dynamic between Jacob Batalon and costars Zendaya and Tom Holland has completely transformed inSpider-Man: Brand New Day—Peter Parker’s existence is forgotten by the world in the latest installment—their offscreen bond has only grown stronger throughout the years.

“It’s pretty beautiful,” Batalon exclusively told E! News’ Will Marfuggi at the Los Angeles premiere for their movie July 27, “to really get to grow with these people who’ve really become my family. It’s amazing.”

And as Batalon teased, navigating the change between the once-close characters came easier than expected.

“I just had to pretend I didn’t know who Tom was,” he joked. “It was a really great time…It was a great acting exercise for sure…He’s amazing.”

Along with the usual crew, Brand New Day also features a few new faces including costar Sadie Sink, who swung into production with ease.

“I feel like she’s pretty good on her own,” Batalon explained, “but I think we were just very welcoming to her and wanted to know she’s a part of the family.”

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Stars at Spider-Man: No Way Home Premiere

As for how he sees his own character growing, Batalon previously addressed fan theories that Ned would follow the comic book route and transform into the villainous Hobgoblin.

“I’ve been hearing these theories since I was 19, so I think that I’ve kind of grown with these theories,” he told E! News in 2022. “I think that people really love to play on the idea that they love seeing best friends go at each other. But it’s interesting. Anything to get me a suit and more money, please fans, please keep theorizing. I appreciate you.”

Amy Sussman/Getty Images

But for now, Batalon is simply hoping everyone still loves their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as much as the cast does, noting what viewers should expect from Brand New Day.

“New storyline, crazy emotion, a lot of action,” he told E! at the premiere, “but also really funny at the same time. Hope everyone loves it.”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters July 27.

For more secrets within the web of the Marvel franchise, keep reading…

(E! and Fandango are both part of Versant Media.)

Chuck Zlotnick/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock, Lars Niki/Corbis via Getty Images

Timothée Chalamet Auditioned to Play Spider-ManIt’s impossible to think of anyone other than Tom Holland in the role now, but casting could have swung in a number of different directions, including Timothée Chalamet‘s.Yet as the Marty Supreme star recalled in 2018 while accepting an acting award for Call Me By Your Name, “I read twice and I left sweating in a total panic.” Of course he then called his agent and said he just had to go back and read again, but his agent advised him that might be overkill.

Chuck Zlotnick/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock, Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

How DidTom Holland Get Cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man?Holland, then 19, leaned into his background in dance and gymnastics to put together a now-legendary audition tape in his bid to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.“He just was so young and sweet, and just charming, and then in the audition, he did a full backflip, like a standing backflip, in addition to being really great on tape,” Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts told Men’s Health in 2024. “It was like watching a video of the real Peter Parker.”Added Joe Russo, who along with brother Anthony Russo directed a number of MCU films, including 2016’s Captain America: Civil War (Spider-Man’s franchise debut), “He was all the things that reminded me of what I loved about Peter Parker as a kid. And he was a movie star. He had that movie-star quality. The charisma, the confidence, the energy.”

Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan, Taylor Hill/FilmMagic, Stephen Lovekin/Getty/ 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

Who else was in the running to play Spider-Man besides Tom Holland?More than 1,500 actors were considered before the list was whittled down to Asa Butterfield, Holland, Judah Lewis, Matthew Lintz, Charlie Plummer, Charlie Rowe.But after acing screen tests opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, Holland was announced as the new Spider-Man in June 2015.

Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Tom Holland’s Audition Tape Was a Punisher-ing ExperienceJon Bernthal, who’s appearing as The Punisher on the big screen for the first time in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, played a key role in Holland’s journey.The Odyssey co-stars were making the 2017 film Pilgrimage and “that was where both Tom did his audition for Spider-Man and I did my audition for [Netflix’s] Punisher,” Bernthal said on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April 2025. “We actually made each other’s audition tapes on that film.”Holland was super-confident, Bernthal noted, so he admittedly tried to temper the teen’s expectations.“I was like, ‘There’s probably a lot of people that want to be Spider-Man. I mean, you’re super talented and all, but the odds are kind of against you, but yeah, let’s make the tape,’” Bernthal recalled. But, not wanting Holland to get lost in the shuffle, either, “I gave him the note, ‘Tom, maybe you should run up that wall and do a double backflip and then start the scene.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you think I should do that? That’s not too much?’”Bernthal quipped, “It’s not that I take responsibility for him [getting cast], but you know, like a little something.”

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There Was Almost No MCU Spider-Man At AllSony made the five previous Spider-Man movies and still had the rights to the character when the Russo brothers were hoping to make him part of the MCU.”Not only did the idea of Civil War scare parts of Marvel, because we were turning Tony Stark, their most popular character in the MCU, into an antagonist in the film,” Anthony Russo told CBR in May 2026. “The [idea of] introducing Spider-Man within this movie was very controversial because…the character could really only appear in the MCU in cooperation with Sony.”And even though they had a Spider-Man, Anthony continued,”there were a couple of weeks where we didn’t even come in to work on the movie because that issue hadn’t been resolved yet.”Added Joe, ” I remember correctly, Sony and Disney didn’t sign the deal officially until like a day before [Holland] was on camera, or something crazy like that. There was a reason that we couldn’t talk about it, because it still could have blown up at the last second.”

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Zendaya Was Unknown When She Auditioned for Spider-ManWell, not really, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and producer Amy Pascal didn’t know who the Disney Channel alum was.“She was wearing no makeup and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s amazing. She has to be in the movie,’” Pascal told Vogue in 2024. “And then we found out she was a totally famous person, and felt really stupid.”

Sony Pictures Releasing/Marvel Entertainment/Moviestore/Shutterstock

Zendaya Didn’t Know She Was Auditioning for Spider-ManThe process was so secretive, Zendaya said on The Tonight Showin 2017, she showed up to audition for “Girl in Movie.”Her character was “kind of like a loner,” she explained. “She’s super intellectual, very dry humor, one liners, pops in, pops out—and I didn’t even know what kind of character I was gonna play until I got there [to the audition] and got to sign the non-disclosure and then read the script.”

Columbia Pictures/Getty Images, J Whilden/Columbia/Marvel/Kobal/Shutterstock

Is Zendaya’s MJ the Same Character as Kirsten Dunst’s MJ?Kirsten Dunst played Peter’s high school crush (and eventual wife) Mary Jane Watson of Marvel Comics fame opposite Tobey Maguire. Though also Peter’s high school crush, Zendaya‘s MJ is Michelle Jones-Watson, a character created for the MCU.

Sony Pictures Releasing/Marvel Entertainment/Moviestore/Shutterstock

How Tom Holland Gets in Spidey ShapeTo play his buffest incarnation of the superhero yet in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Holland got into “crazy shape” with the help of trainer Duffy Gaver.”A Monday morning would be this hour-long workout: one pullup, two dips, three pushups, four sit-ups, five squats—that’s round one—and you basically go all the way up to 10, so the last round is 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,” the actor told Men’s Health. “And then you’ll go all the way back down to 1. That is a monster workout.”

Sony Pictures/Marvel

Getting Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland Together Was Top-SecretThe multiverse felt a little less mad when it allowed for Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield—stars of Spider-Man franchises past—to join Holland in No Way Home.Maguire and Garfield quietly signed on toward the end of 2020 before their scenes were even scripted, so their participation “definitely shaped” the end result, according to Erik Sommers, who wrote the screenplay with Chris McKenna.“They had thoughts, and it was really interesting and helpful to see their thoughts,” Sommers told The Hollywood Reporter when the film came out. Added McKenna, “They had great ideas that really elevated everything we were going for and added layers and an arc, and we really actually started honing into the idea that these two guys were really helping Tom’s Peter on his journey to becoming who he ends up becoming.”And while there was speculation aplenty, being able to keep Maguire and Garfield’s casting a secret was its own reward.”One of my favorite things to do at the minute is to go online and watch fans’ reactions to you guys coming in that one scene in particular,” Holland told his fellow Spider-Men in a Zoom chat with Pete Hammond after No Way Home stuck the landing and then some. “I don’t think I could ever have imagined it as being so well received by everyone. I mean, I guess I had an idea that people would love this movie, but in no way, shape or form could I have thought it was going to be as big as it has been.”

Jay Maidment (Sony Pictures)

When “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” Finally Got Its MomentThe line that can be traced back to Peter’s ill-fated Uncle Ben—played by Cliff Robertson in 2002’s Spider-Man and Martin Sheen in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man—didn’t make its MCU debut until 2021’s No Way Home.Before then, the writers never felt there was “a natural place” for it. But ultimately the line—in this case,”With great power, there must also come great responsibility”—went to Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), who meets her demise in the third film.”For the scene on the rooftop, where the three Peters meet, we felt pretty strongly that we need something to really, finally crystalize it for these three guys that they are the same, that they are brothers,” Sommers told THR. “And that they are bound in a cosmic way by something and having them share those words in common seemed like the thing to do.”

Todd Williamson/Getty Images

The Reason Why There’s No Uncle Ben in the Tom Holland Spider-Man MoviesIt was a purposeful choice to not include Uncle Ben being killed by a criminal in this Spider-Man’s origin story.”It was all just like, ‘We don’t want to go over ground that’s been covered,'” Captain America: Civil War co-writer Christopher Markus told Collider in 2016. “It’s more poignant when you don’t talk about it at this point because everyone knows it.'”Aunt May’s a widow, but Ben “died in an accident,” Joe Russo told CBR in May 2026, “and not because of Peter’s failure to act.”And if Holland’s Spider-Man “blamed himself for his Uncle Ben’s death,” he explained, “I think he becomes a very different character.”

Jay Maidment (Sony Pictures)

Spider-Man: No Way Home Could Have Been EndgameThe unraveling of Peter’s life in order for the world to go on—and remember Spider-Man as a hero rather than a villain—could have been it, just in case. “I think it could be a satisfying conclusion,” Sommers told THR, “or just another really fun, inciting incident for another story. I hope they do more. But I don’t know.”Added McKenna, “I think it’s a fitting ending if it had to end this way. We never know. ‘Oh, is Tom doing another one? Will we be a part of it?'”The answer to both questions was yes, as No Way Home made $1.9 billion worldwide and the whole gang’s back together for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

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