‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Star Tom Holland Jokes He Thought Christopher Nolan Meant to Call This Actor for ‘The Odyssey’

Tom Holland has spent the better part of this week making the rounds for ‘The Odyssey,‘ and every stop seems to come with a new story about how surreal it still feels to be part of Christopher Nolan’s cast. Between swordfights, secretive scripts, and a director known for keeping even his own actors in the dark, Holland has not been shy about sharing just how unexpected the whole experience has been.

That included a stop on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’ where Holland sat down for an interview as part of a full week dedicated to the film ahead of its theatrical release. The appearance leaned into the film’s mythology with a game called Cyclops Beer Pong, but it was Holland’s storytelling that gave fans the most to talk about.

During the conversation, Holland joked about getting the call that landed him a role in Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s epic, admitting with a laugh that he honestly thought Nolan was supposed to call Timothée Chalamet instead, on The Tonight Show. It is the kind of self-deprecating bit that plays right into Holland’s public persona, even as he sits at the center of one of the most anticipated ensembles of the year.

The joke lands even better given how genuinely unexpected Holland’s casting seems to have felt from the inside. He has described the whole process as a pinch me moment, and it is easy to see why given the company he is now keeping. Matt Damon leads the film as Odysseus, with Holland playing his son Telemachus, the young prince left to protect his mother Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, while his father is away fighting the Trojan War and finding his way home.

Nolan’s casting calls have become something of their own mini legend at this point. Damon has shared that when Nolan rang him up, the director offered him the lead role before Damon had any idea what the project even was, and Damon said yes on the spot before learning it was ‘The Odyssey.’ That level of trust in Nolan seems to run through the entire cast, Holland included.

Holland’s own path to the film also came with a personal twist once he was already attached. He has spoken about being the one to tell his wife Zendaya that Nolan wanted to cast her as Athena, going home after a meeting with the director and slowly revealing the news to her before the two celebrated together. It is a detail that adds even more weight to Holland’s joke about the casting call, since so much of his ‘Odyssey’ journey ended up tangled up with his personal life in ways he clearly never expected.

Beyond the humor, Holland’s appearance also touched on just how demanding shooting Nolan’s IMAX-heavy production actually was. He has previously admitted to briefly worrying that Nolan disliked his performance simply because the director kept cutting takes short, before learning the cuts were only due to how quickly the IMAX film reels ran out. Stories like that have painted a picture of a cast that spent much of production slightly unsure of what Nolan was thinking, even while trusting him completely.

That mix of nerves and admiration seems to be exactly why jokes like the Chalamet line resonate so well with fans right now. ‘The Odyssey’ has been positioned as one of the buzziest and most star-studded releases of the summer, and Holland poking fun at his own surprise casting only adds to the sense that even the people involved cannot quite believe how the whole thing came together. With Damon, Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron rounding out the ensemble, it is easy to imagine plenty of actors joking that the call was meant for someone else.

With ‘The Odyssey’ hitting theaters on July 17, Holland’s press run is only expected to ramp up from here, especially with ‘Spider-Man, Brand New Day’ following close behind later this summer. Fans clearly cannot get enough of his behind-the-scenes stories, and this latest bit from Fallon’s couch is already making the rounds online.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!