Tom Holland Recalls Zendaya’s Playful Ultimatum That Pushed Him To Choose Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’

Tom Holland has had one of the biggest years of his career. He starred in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ as Telemachus, the son of Matt Damon’s Odysseus and Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, and returned as Peter Parker in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, which opened just 2 weeks later.

Both films became huge hits. ‘The Odyssey’ finished its domestic run with $625.6 million, ranking as the year’s 2nd-biggest release behind ‘Brand New Day’, and Universal has now put Holland forward for Best Supporting Actor in its Oscar campaign.

As awards season heats up, a clip of Holland explaining how he landed the Nolan role is circulating again online. In an exclusive interview with People this summer, Holland revealed that Zendaya jokingly threatened to leave him if he turned down ‘The Odyssey’.

Holland said that after meeting about the project, he went home and told Zendaya he had been offered a movie, describing it only as “the big one.” She immediately guessed it was Nolan.

The problem was timing. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ was scheduled to begin filming on the same day as ‘The Odyssey’, and that’s when Zendaya made her playful ultimatum: if he didn’t do ‘The Odyssey’, she would leave him.

Tom Holland says Zendaya threatened to leave him if he chose Christopher Nolan’s movie over Spider-Man “To be honest, when I got home after our meeting, I sat down with Z and was like, ‘I’ve been offered this movie.’” “And she was like, ‘By who?’ And I was like, ‘It’s the big one.’ And she was like, ‘Chris?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s Chris Nolan.’” “Spider-Man was literally scheduled to go the same day that we would start shooting, and Z said, ‘I’ll leave you if you don’t do the other one.’” https://t.co/REvBEZmhSn

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Taking the role meant Holland had to ask Sony to move his next Spider-Man film. In a GQ interview in June, he described approaching Sony Pictures executive Tom Rothman about pushing back production as a very uncomfortable conversation.

Holland believes Nolan’s reputation for finishing productions on schedule helped convince the studio. He added that with a different director, the conversation might have gone differently.

The final trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘THE ODYSSEY’ has been released. In theaters on July 17. https://t.co/xn42TcX4aG

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Sony agreed to delay ‘Brand New Day’, which allowed Holland to make both movies. Zendaya also appears in both films, playing the goddess Athena in ‘The Odyssey’ and MJ in the Spider-Man series.

Nolan was happy to have him. Speaking with People, the director said he had admired Holland’s work for years even though they had never worked together, and acknowledged that fitting the production around everyone’s busy schedules wasn’t easy.

Nolan described the film as a hard shoot but in the right way, and said the cast rose to the challenge. He also responded with a joke of his own, thanking Zendaya for her part in making it happen. Holland has also shared that Nolan let him be the one to tell Zendaya that she had been cast in the film.

A Brand New Day starts now. Watch the official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day – exclusively in theatres July 31. https://t.co/O4ryqpTCZX

— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) March 18, 2026

The scheduling shuffle paid off in a big way. ‘The Odyssey’ became the highest-grossing R-rated film ever worldwide and Nolan’s biggest movie to date, while ‘Brand New Day’ broke the all-time domestic opening weekend record.

Holland and Zendaya, who have been together since 2021, married earlier this year. Holland confirmed the news in an interview with Esquire. Now Holland’s role in ‘The Odyssey’ is part of the film’s Oscar conversation.

Universal’s campaign puts him in Best Supporting Actor alongside co-stars Robert Pattinson and John Leguizamo. Whether or not he earns a nomination, Holland’s choice clearly worked out. And it seems he has Zendaya to thank for pushing him toward one of the defining roles of his career.

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