When Tom Holland made his onscreen debut as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Marvel's Captain America: Civil War last year, it marked the beginning of a new era for the beloved superhero on the big screen. Younger than he'd ever been in a live-action film before, and getting to interact with the kind of superpowered titans like Captain America and Iron Man in a way that fans had been waiting their entire lives to see, it felt undoubtedly like the most fully realized version of Peter Parker yet... even if he was only onscreen for about a total of 20 minutes.
After making a first impression last year, though, Holland is getting his first chance to prove himself in his own standalone film later this year with Marvel and Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film follows Peter as he takes on iconic villains like The Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Shocker (Bokeem Woodbine), all while balancing the daily struggles of life as a high school loner.
Key to that kind of outsider lifestyle will be Tony Revolori's Flash Thompson too, a bully present in all of the Spider-Man comics, though, Holland says Revolori's version of the character will be very different than any of the previous iterations. When asked by Short List Magazine (H/T CBM) about how he prepared to play an American high schooler for the film, Hollland said:
"American high schools are so different to British ones. Bullying wasn't really a thing, so when they cast Flash Thompson they knew they didn't need a 6ft 5in jock to beat Peter Parker up. They needed a rich, smug kid commenting on how bad his trainers were. And I did it to practice my American accent."
From the very beginning, Marvel and the filmmakers behind Homecoming have emphasized the role that Peter's age plays in the film, and how being a sophomore in high school affects his superhero life. Indeed, from the title itself to the brief glimpses into the high school dynamic, Homecoming is already evoking John Hughes in a way that no other superhero movie really has before. The first Amazing Spider-Man film came close to finding a similar tone with its focus on Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy's relationship in high school, but then spent most of its second half focused on Peter fighting The Lizard, instead.
The San Diego Comic-Con teaser put an even greater emphasis on that tone and setting than the Homecoming trailer, though neither of them have featured much of Revolori's Thompson. It was clear from his casting as the character that Marvel wasn't going with a very traditional approach to Flash this time around either, since Revolori doesn't evoke the same kind of jock persona or physicality as some of the previous actors to play Flash have. He only appeared briefly in the SDCC teaser, but thanks to set photos and comments from those involved, it certainly seems like Flash live up to the "smug" persona that Holland has built him up for.
Source: Short List Magazine (via CBM)
