Tom Holland and Zendaya used their off-screen relationship to rescue a scene on the set of Spider-Man: Brand New Day that neither of them believed was working — persuading director Destin Daniel Cretton to send the crew home and rewrite it overnight.
Holland revealed the story on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast, describing a moment during filming when his trust in Zendaya as both a co-star and partner gave him the confidence to raise a concern that he would never have voiced to another actress. The two were shooting her coverage when Holland quietly asked, “Do you think that this scene is working?” Zendaya replied, “No. I don’t think the scene is working at all.” Holland then escalated it to the producers, who agreed, before the pair together approached Cretton directly.
“I know we’ve been shooting for hours and I hate to tell you this, but I just don’t think that this scene is working,” Holland told the director. “What we’re supposed to feel, we’re not feeling it in the moment.” Cretton listened without alarm, asked Holland what emotion the scene needed to land, confirmed that was precisely the intention, and then dismissed the crew so the scene could be rewritten. They returned the following day and reshot it. Holland said the result “sings in the movie.”
Holland described Cretton as “so calm — nothing can throw him off,” and reflected that the intervention was only possible because of his personal relationship with Zendaya. “Imagine on someone else’s coverage being like, ‘Do you think this is working?'” he said. He went on to praise her as “fearless” and “absolutely 10 toes down,” pointing to the range between her performances as Rue in Euphoria and her role in The Drama as evidence of an actor who brings identical intensity to radically different material.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens July 31, 2026, with Holland and Zendaya reprising their roles alongside Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. Set four years after No Way Home, the film follows a Peter Parker living in total isolation after erasing himself from the memories of everyone he loves. The two stars will also appear together in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
