Latest / The Front / The lonely hero: a very Gen-Z Spider-Man is here to save cinema

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The lonely hero: a very Gen-Z Spider-Man is here to save cinema · The Front

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  Speaker 1: I think every single male actor of a certain age
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  Speaker 1: will be relieved because then they won't be asked that question.
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  Speaker 2: They can stop doing so many sit-ups.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly.
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  Speaker 3: From The Australian, this is the weekend edition of The Front.
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  Speaker 3: I'm Claire Harvey. 2026 is turning out to be the
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  Speaker 3: year of the cinema, young people and everyone else rediscovering
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  Speaker 3: the joy of a shared experience. Together in the Darkness,
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  Speaker 3: Saving New York City and A Precious Cultural Ritual. Spider-Man
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  Speaker 3: Brand New Day has made more than $ 2.
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  Speaker 2: Billion at the box office.
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  Speaker 3: And today, The Australian's Editor of Culture, Melanda Rout, is
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  Speaker 3: joining us to explore how the complex, interconnected stories of
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  Speaker 3: Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe are helping superheroes grow up.
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  Speaker 2: What is happening to me?
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  Speaker 3: Did you miss me, Spidey?
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  Speaker 2: I'm losing my mind.
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  Speaker 1: I am totally out of control.
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  Speaker 2: I got to fix whatever this is right now.
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  Speaker 3: It's a very Gen Z Spider-Man we meet with Tom
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  Speaker 3: Holland in Brand New Day. He's overworked. He's obsessed with
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  Speaker 3: work-life balance because he doesn't have any. He's sad and lonely,
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  Speaker 3: living in his house by himself, sewing his own costumes.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, stalking his friends on Instagram.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very fresh take, isn't it?
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  Speaker 4: It is.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting. Our chief film critic, Nicky Gamble,
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  Speaker 1: said he was very sad. And it is kind of
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  Speaker 1: the trajectory of those kind of Marvel superhero movies where
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  Speaker 1: everyone has to be sad without, what is the expression?
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  Speaker 1: With all power comes responsibility. This idea that a superhero
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  Speaker 1: can't really be happy. We used to know each other.
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  Speaker 2: We were together once.
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  Speaker 1: But something bad was going to happen. But I think
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  Speaker 1: it's nice, too, because the original movie, Homecoming, was set
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  Speaker 1: when he was in high school, so it was very
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  Speaker 1: innocent and kind of fun, and I think that's the
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  Speaker 1: appeal of them.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Peter Parker.
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  Speaker 1: You're the Spider-Man.
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  Speaker 2: I can't tell anybody about this. You've got to keep
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  Speaker 2: it a secret.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a very adult Spider-Man. He's a grown-up man.
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  Speaker 3: His friends are at uni, and because their memories have
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  Speaker 3: been wiped by Doctor Strange, they've forgotten who he is.
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  Speaker 3: And so he's kind of, as you say, stalking them
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  Speaker 3: on Instagram. At least he's got an excuse for doing that.
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  Speaker 3: But he has also turned to trying to solve street-level
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  Speaker 3: New York crime, bank robberies, muggings. It's much more like
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  Speaker 3: the Spider-Man comics. He's not trying to stop the world
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  Speaker 3: from being exploded by someone.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's what was originally in the
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  Speaker 1: original Spider-Man Homecoming. He was that friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, I think,
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  Speaker 1: and then even Florence Pugh is in it and she
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  Speaker 1: keeps referring to his work as small potatoes, very small potatoes.
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  Speaker 4: So that is more your area, like small potato stuff,
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  Speaker 4: whereas the New Avengers are focusing on big potato stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Not saving the world from the world ending, just getting
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  Speaker 1: the bad guys on the street.
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  Speaker 3: The very likeable Tom Holland, fresh from his turn as
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  Speaker 3: Telemachus in The Odyssey, is Spider-Man.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: And his real-life wife, Zendaya, plays his love interest, MJ,
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  Speaker 3: who's forgotten about him.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. Their connection is beautiful, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: I know, it's so lovely. I saw something on Instagram
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  Speaker 1: the other day, a comedian was saying, If they had
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  Speaker 1: just done a reality show of their lives, maybe not
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  Speaker 1: that many people would go and see Spider-Man. That's like
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  Speaker 1: half the reason I went.
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  Speaker 2: Like, I couldn't tell you the plot of Spider-Man.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, but I know those two
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  Speaker 1: are meant for each other. I'm just so happy. I
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  Speaker 1: love them. There's definitely a beautiful nature to their relationship
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  Speaker 1: and the fact that it's in real life, which very
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  Speaker 1: rarely happens. And they seem like genuinely nice people who
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  Speaker 1: somehow manage child stardom and have come out, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: they're in their 30s and they seem kind of normal.
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  Speaker 2: Gen Z seem to be getting the movie stars they deserve.
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  Speaker 2: They're wholesome. They don't drink much. They work hard. They're
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  Speaker 2: all buff.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 2: No, it is.
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  Speaker 1: I saw an interview with Tom Holland who was mentioning
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  Speaker 1: that it's mostly his diet, which means he can't eat
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  Speaker 1: anything to be buff. So at least he's admitting it's
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  Speaker 1: not some, you know, he's not a superhero.
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  Speaker 3: You mentioned that phrase, with great power comes great responsibility.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the thing that the Tom Holland character is
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  Speaker 3: grappling with.
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  Speaker 2: Ultimately, he does have to save The city, if not
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  Speaker 2: the world.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Even though he's trying to focus on small-time crime.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a really interesting thing about what is appealing
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  Speaker 3: to young audiences, isn't it? Even though there is a
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  Speaker 3: lot of violence and things blow up and people get hurt,
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  Speaker 3: this is not the kind of mindless violence that previous
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  Speaker 3: iterations of, I think, superhero movies in the past decade
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  Speaker 3: have lent into.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, even The Avengers. I mean, there's not a great
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  Speaker 1: deal of plot line. I might get crucified for saying that,
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  Speaker 1: but there's not really. Whereas I think Spider-Man has a
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  Speaker 1: bit more heart, so you're more invested in the characters.
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  Speaker 3: So this, of course, because it's a Marvel movie, fits
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  Speaker 3: into the bigger Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's connected to the
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  Speaker 3: forthcoming X-Men movie with the introduction of a mutant.
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  Speaker 2: Called Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: It's her kind of debut into this universe as an actress.
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: But the character Jean Grey is a sort of well-established
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  Speaker 3: mutant and she has telepathic powers that mean that she
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  Speaker 3: can jump into other people's minds. And she's been betrayed
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  Speaker 3: by the sort of world. Her sister is being killed
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  Speaker 3: and she's angry. And Spider-Man has to kind of deal
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  Speaker 3: with this with a lot of empathy and heart.
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  Speaker 1: Yes. He's just a really nice superhero.
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  Speaker 2: And it's the start of a new trilogy too, this Spider-Man.
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  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, how is this franchise... getting new life for
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  Speaker 3: every generation like this.
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  Speaker 2: It's quite amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it is phenomenal. And it was interesting just before
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  Speaker 1: this movie, people were writing about superhero fatigue and Marvel fatigue,
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  Speaker 1: and especially since they have TV shows and you literally
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  Speaker 1: can't keep up with the different universes and the multi-universes.
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  Speaker 1: But when Spider-Man came out, my son loves it. And
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  Speaker 1: so we try to book tickets on the weekend and
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  Speaker 1: we could not get them. And my son was so
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  Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to get these tickets that he got
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  Speaker 1: online and he was like, After an hour of looking,
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  Speaker 1: we couldn't find any of them anywhere. And then he says,
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  Speaker 1: I finally found somewhere. And it was a cinema in Brisbane.
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  Speaker 1: And I was like, we're not going to Brisbane. But
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  Speaker 1: that's how, like, we could not get in. And we
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  Speaker 1: could not get in for weeks. And I can't remember
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  Speaker 1: a time where you could not get into the movies. Like,
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  Speaker 1: it's extraordinary. That and Odyssey, which obviously Tom Holland is
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  Speaker 1: also in. I think Australia had its biggest box office
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  Speaker 1: weekend of the movies, like a second one of all
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  Speaker 1: time a few weeks ago.
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  Speaker 3: And this is the third movie in 2026 that's doing this.
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  Speaker 3: The Devil Wears Prada 2 also packed cinemas out, except
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  Speaker 3: with a very different demographic.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: It was more like, that was our people. Yes. Not
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  Speaker 2: our kids' people.
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  Speaker 1: No, exactly. We ended up, I saw Spider-Man with my
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  Speaker 1: son in 4DX. Have you been on 4DX?
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  Speaker 2: Is that the one where they spray water on your face?
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  Speaker 1: It was a lot. It's like a roller coaster. And
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  Speaker 1: so it literally, my son's popcorn went everywhere and it moves.
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  Speaker 1: And with Spider-Man, it was perfect for it. And it's
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  Speaker 1: also 3D, but he dives off buildings. And so you
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  Speaker 1: get propelled forward. But it was a lot.
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  Speaker 2: That popcorn's valuable too. A small popcorn is $ 11 now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, 40X was more expensive as well. I know.
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  Speaker 1: But people are going and there is definitely something to
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  Speaker 1: seeing a movie with a whole group of people. especially
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  Speaker 1: at 40X. When it first started, everyone was clinging on
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  Speaker 1: for dear life, so that was quite funny. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: movie's back.
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  Speaker 3: Avengers Doomsday is going to come next. That's the next
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  Speaker 3: big thing apart from this Spider-Man trilogy concluding. This will
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  Speaker 3: have set new expectations for those Marvel movies, won't it?
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: That they will all be massive cash cows. Do you
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  Speaker 2: think that's a given?
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  Speaker 1: I think so. I mean, Disney recently had its fan
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  Speaker 1: summit where it announced all the people, and they were
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  Speaker 1: never going to do another Avengers movie. Robert Downey Jr.
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  Speaker 1: was never going to come back, and lo and behold,
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  Speaker 1: a couple of years later, they're all coming back. Yep,
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  Speaker 1: should have known better indeed. Someone's always there to stir
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  Speaker 1: things up, Evans, you know? Avengers Doomsday. So, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: presumably it will go completely crazy. When the movie gets
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  Speaker 1: released in summer, I think it will... break records because
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  Speaker 1: obviously people love it, kids and adults.
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  Speaker 3: Coming up, Tom Holland and Zendaya's next move, do nothing.
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  Speaker 3: True to their generation, Tom Holland and Zendaya have said
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  Speaker 3: they're going to take 2027 off from acting and just
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  Speaker 3: have a break now. Can cinema survive without them?
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  Speaker 2: They're everywhere. She's in everything. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: She was in the drama with Robert Pattinson and then
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  Speaker 1: she was in The Odyssey with Tom Holland and then
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  Speaker 1: they went straight back into Spider-Man. So I feel like
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  Speaker 1: every day for months we've seen images of Zendaya or
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  Speaker 1: Tom Holland in various press releases. tours and on red
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  Speaker 1: carpets all around the world. And that obviously fuels huge
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  Speaker 1: awareness for it as well. He seems really nice in
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  Speaker 1: those press tour interviews, which are a grind. Oh, absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, they get paid a lot, but I can
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  Speaker 1: imagine it would be very annoying talking to journalists all day.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, we had our experience with Nikki Gemmel, who
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  Speaker 1: interviewed Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland for The Odyssey. And
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  Speaker 1: I was watching the raw footage afterwards and Nikki was
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  Speaker 1: talking to Anne the whole time and Tom just looked
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  Speaker 1: there and looked on, didn't interrupt and just then commented
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  Speaker 1: at the end about how it was fabulous to watch
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  Speaker 1: them chat and it was one of his favourite conversations.
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  Speaker 1: That was my favourite interview. That was so fun.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
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  Speaker 1: I will hold that for the rest of my life.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, gosh.
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  Speaker 1: And Nikki was very struck by him and said he
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  Speaker 1: was a lovely boy and very well raised. Had a
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  Speaker 1: good mom, actually. That was her term. It's all about
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  Speaker 1: a mom. But yeah, I think that's part of the
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  Speaker 1: attraction of that couple is that they do look amazing
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  Speaker 1: on the red carpet. I was in New York with
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  Speaker 1: my family when the Odyssey premiere was happening and we
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  Speaker 1: were walking past and there were queues just to see them.
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  Speaker 1: And Zendaya turned up and we had to leave because
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  Speaker 1: it was like 40 degrees and we could not handle
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  Speaker 1: waiting for Tom Holland. We kept passing out. My daughter
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  Speaker 1: was going to. But Zendaya turned up in this fabulous,
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  Speaker 1: amazing outfit with angel wings because she has the most
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary stylist, Law Roach, who just knows how to theme dress.
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  Speaker 1: That's the other thing they do that's really clever. Zendaya
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  Speaker 1: was kind of one of the pioneers of his theme
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  Speaker 1: dressing for the movie. So in Spider-Man, she comes wearing
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  Speaker 1: black and gowns that have spiderwebs through it. That's a
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  Speaker 1: very bad way of describing it.
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  Speaker 2: She makes it classy.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And then with the Odyssey, it was kind of very...
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  Speaker 1: mythological or, you know, all those kind of gods and
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  Speaker 1: stuff and she wore angel rings. So they are amazing content,
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  Speaker 1: that couple.
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  Speaker 2: Could he be the next James Bond?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, actually.
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  Speaker 1: It's a bit short.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But he's got the, he's buff, he's British. He's buff.
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  Speaker 2: He's smart.
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: It's kind of everything they need.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I feel like we've been talking
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  Speaker 1: about James Bond for like decades now. And it's Jeff Bezos,
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  Speaker 1: so God knows what it's going to be.
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  Speaker 3: They're promising by the end of this year they will
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  Speaker 3: declare a new bond.
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  Speaker 1: I think every single male actor of a certain age
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  Speaker 1: will be relieved because then they won't be asked that question.
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  Speaker 2: They can stop doing so many sit-ups.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, Melinda.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks.
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  Speaker 3: Melinda Routt is The Australian's Culture Editor. This episode of
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  Speaker 3: The Front was hosted by me, Claire Harvey, produced by
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  Speaker 3: Christian Amiette and edited by Leah Tamaglou. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 3: us on The Front this week. Our team also includes
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Tiffany Dimak, Joshua Burton and Jasper Leake, who also wrote
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  Speaker 3: our themes.