Tom Holland says The Odyssey gave him the confidence to look beyond the role that has defined much of his adult career. Considering his two major films of 2026 have earned more than $4.3 billion worldwide, this is not exactly a reinvention forced by poor quarterly results.
Speaking at a London screening on Thursday, Holland said playing Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s Greek epic left him with “confidence and an ambition to see what else is out there for me.”
“I’ve been an admirer of Chris since I can remember,” he said. Nolan’s approval, including a private screening at the director’s home and what Holland described as a reassuring “pat on the back,” gave him a stronger belief in his abilities.
“He’s given me a level of confidence as an actor that I don’t know if I had before,” Holland added.
Can Holland move beyond franchise stardom?
Holland has played Peter Parker for more than a decade, but 2026 has placed him in two very different blockbusters. Sony told investors that Spider-Man: Brand New Day had passed $2.5 billion worldwide, while Box Office Mojo lists The Odyssey at $1.804 billion, including $625.6 million in North America.
That makes Nolan’s film the year’s second-highest-grossing release and gives Holland two leading projects with a combined global total above $4.3 billion. Apparently, global domination still leaves room for professional self-doubt.
Holland said he learned from the cast and crew, including his wife Zendaya, but credited Nolan and producer Emma Thomas with making actors feel supported. He plans to enter his next project with “this sense of achievement and this newfound confidence in what I think I can do.”
The next phase may take him back to his earliest professional skills. Holland is attached to play Fred Astaire in a biopic, with Sabrina Carpenter cast as Ginger Rogers and Margaret Qualley as Astaire’s sister Adele. Before Marvel, Holland entered show business through the West End production of Billy Elliot, so the dancing is less a surprising detour than a return to the original job description.
How demanding was Christopher Nolan’s production?
Holland’s confidence did not arrive immediately. He previously said he worried that he was failing because Nolan repeatedly stopped his takes earlier than expected. The finished performance drew mixed reactions: critic Kathia Woods called Holland “the revelation,” while Hoai-Tran Bui found him solid and Guy Lodge described him as “over-callow.” Prestige cinema remains reassuringly incapable of producing unanimous agreement.
The production itself was less debatable in scale. The Associated Press reported that filming lasted 91 days across six months and took place in six countries, on land and at sea. Nolan used more than 2 million feet of film, making The Odyssey the first feature shot entirely with IMAX film cameras.
Nolan told the Associated Press that audiences already understood what the title promised and that he hoped the production had “made good on that promise.” Reviews were divided on whether it fully succeeded. Variety called the film “vast” and “thrilling” but “slightly aloof,” while The Hollywood Reporter considered it uneven compared with Oppenheimer.
Holland argued that Nolan created spectacle without losing the characters underneath it. “He’s able to create scale, but without sacrificing the heart and soul of what makes the characters tick,” he said.
Why did IMAX change Holland’s performance?
The London event took place at the BFI IMAX, where the 65-foot-high screen gave Holland an unusually large view of his own face. The venue said the film surpassed £2.6 million in ticket sales there, making it the cinema’s biggest release.
Holland described IMAX acting as distinct from both stage and conventional screen performance because of the camera’s ability to capture minute details. “The beauty of the IMAX camera is that it almost looks into your soul,” he said.
That precision came with one unwelcome discovery. Looking at the enormous screen behind him, Holland joked: “I was very upset about my pimple opening the movie. It literally is the opening scene. First time you see me, it’s like right there.”
The large-format strategy has also become a commercial asset rather than merely one of Nolan’s expensive preferences. Following its scheduled home-entertainment release on November 17, the film is expected to return to cinemas and IMAX screens in December. Universal has also listed further campaign events as awards season continues.
Robert Pattinson saw a calmer side of the Nolans
Robert Pattinson, who plays the calculating Antinous, joined Holland at the screening while working in London on The Batman: Part II. He said Nolan and Thomas make large-scale filmmaking look “effortless,” then offered a domestic example that was almost more alarming than the sea shoot.
Pattinson lives near the couple in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Days before they left to begin filming, he saw them running a charity bake sale from their driveway. Thomas had made what he estimated were “about a million cakes” and spent the day selling them to neighbors, with Nolan alongside her.
“This is about five days before the shoot,” Pattinson said. “I was literally like, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
For Holland, the lasting result was not only another enormous hit. Nolan’s approval appears to have encouraged him to test how far he can move beyond Spider-Man, whether through historical epics, musicals or whatever follows. A record-setting year has left him more ambitious, which is convenient. Hollywood rarely objects when artistic growth arrives with several billion dollars attached.
