Matt Damon Jokes Tom Holland Calls the Shots at Sony

Matt Damon recently recounted a rather amusing episode from the set of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, offering a glimpse into Tom Holland’s unexpected sway at Sony. Appearing alongside Ben Affleck on the On Film… With Kevin McCarthy podcast, Damon discussed their latest project, The Rip. The conversation took a turn when host Kevin McCarthy mentioned attending a 70 mm screening of Lawrence of Arabia, courtesy of Sony’s Tom Rothman.

Damon chimed in, noting he’d also caught the film, but in his case, it was Holland who had orchestrated the event for the entire Odyssey cast. With a wry smile, Damon quipped that Holland essentially runs the studio these days, given his role as Spider-Man. He explained,

“So Tom Holland, when we were shooting The Odyssey, arranged [the screening]. Cuz Tom Holland runs that studio. He’s Spider-Man. And so he called Tom Rothman and on a Sunday we went down and screened it.”

Affleck, clearly entertained, admitted he’d missed the screening due to work commitments, while Damon and McCarthy swapped impressions of the classic epic’s 70 mm print.

Holland’s Clout: From Casting Doubts to Box Office Triumphs

It’s easy to forget that Holland’s casting as Spider-Man was far from a foregone conclusion. Marvel’s Anthony and Joe Russo once revealed that Sony hesitated over Holland, mainly due to his age. The Russos recalled,

“We talked with Feige at Marvel about Holland and he got excited and then we went to Sony. And they were like, ‘Let’s think about it for a minute.’”

Sony, it seems, took their time, wary of making a hasty decision.

“It came down to a fight, yet Sony just kept dragging their feet.”

Eventually, the studio relented, and Holland’s take on the web-slinger quickly won over audiences. Yet, after his second outing, the partnership between Sony and Marvel nearly unravelled.

In 2019, the two studios found themselves at odds during renegotiations. According to reports, Holland played a pivotal role in bridging the gap, personally reaching out to both Sony’s Tom Rothman and Disney’s Bob Iger.

[Holland] made multiple appeals to Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger and Sony film chairman Tom Rothman to reach a resolution. […]He leaned on Rothman to re-engage with Disney (the actor was able to leverage his clout because he also is set to star in Sony’s Uncharted) and also surprisingly reached out to Iger, beseeching one of Hollywood’s most powerful executives to return to the table.

With Holland’s first two films raking in $2 billion, Sony was inclined to listen. The result: a third and now a fourth Spider-Man film, with No Way Home alone pulling in $1.9 billion worldwide.

On Set with Heroes: Holland and Damon in The Odyssey

As production on Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues, Holland has also been busy filming The Odyssey, where he stars as Telemachus opposite Damon’s Odysseus. The cast is nothing short of star-studded, featuring Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, and Elliot Page. Holland, in a recent interview, described the experience as

“the job of a lifetime.”

He went on,

“The best experience I’ve had on the film set. Incredible. It was exciting. It was different. And I think the movie is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Holland didn’t hide his admiration for his co-stars, especially Damon and Hathaway:

“Matt Damon has always been a hero of mine, Anne Hathaway has always been a hero of mine. So to share scenes with them, to learn from them, to become friends with them, I couldn’t have asked for a better job.”

Filming for Nolan’s latest epic took place in Morocco and Sicily, with Universal once again backing the director after the success of Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is set to hit cinemas on 17 July 2026, with Brand New Day following just a fortnight later. Audiences are already buzzing with anticipation for both releases.