This Is How Tom Holland Landed Himself The Spider-Man Role

Happy Birthday Tom Holland!! At just 20, Tom is something of a newcomer, but with Captain America: Civil War already under his belt and a whole host of awesome films coming up including the Jumanji remake and, of course, Spider-Man: Homecoming, that doesn’t look to be the case for very long.

For good reason, too. Tom Holland was born to play the web-slinger and has worked tirelessly to get there. Here at MTV Breaks, we love it when hard work pays off, so to celebrate his birthday, let’s take a look at all the things that have lined Tom up for the role of a lifetime:

He’s been performing since he was 10

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Probably the coolest kid around, Tom was scouted when he was spotted hip-hop dancing at just 10 in Wimbledon, London and hired for the 2006 Richmond Dance Festival.

The choreographer who spotted him just so happened to also be the choreographer for hit musical Billy Elliot which, after just a further 2 years of training, Tom appeared in as Billy himself.

He’s got some serious Spidey moves

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Not content with just being an awesome actor and dancer, Tom is also a gymnast. Just like Spidey himself, Tom can bust out some pretty impressive flips and spins and is constantly training away on his Insta.

He’s not afraid to show those moves off

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A big part of how Tom got the part of Spider-Man was that he refused to start a scene without first somersaulting into frame. He made sure to show off his gymnastic skills in all his audition tapes and caught the eye of casters, because why wouldn’t you want a guy who’s constantly doing flips for Spider-Man.

He called in a few favours for his audition tapes

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Just in case the somersaults didn’t cut it, Tom wasn’t taking any chances on not getting his dream role and called upon a few superhero pals to help him prepare for his Spidey auditions. Having worked with Chris Hemsworth aka Thor in seafaring epic In The Heart Of The Sea, as well as Jon Bernthal who was auditioning for the role of The Punisher at the time; he called upon the pair to help him perfect his tapes. Both of them were big Holland fans anyway (obvs) so were more than happy to help and the extra work paid off with both Tom and Jon Bernthal getting their roles!

He’s basically Spider-Man in real life anyway

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President of Marvel studios Kevin Feige has already praised Holland. Speaking to Deadline, Feige said they were looking for a Spider-Man this time around who is true to the character in the comics, basically a kid who gets to hang around with a bunch of cool Avengers and pretty much won’t shut up, ever. “Tom Holland, God bless him, is that in real life,” he said. “This amazing young English actor who was brought over here, got into our audition process and suddenly found himself in a room, doing a scene with Robert Downey. I swear it, the exact dynamic that we wanted between Peter Parker and Tony Stark, we had between Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr”. CUTE.

He’s already got all The Avengers on side

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It’s not just RDJ Tom’s bonding with either, the whole squad are on side, from his past friendship with Chris Hemsworth to Chris Evans aka Captain America literally begging to appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Even Spider-Man OG Tobey Maguire has sung his praises, posting a fan-made video mash-up of the pair (now deleted *sad face*) saying Tom is doing a “great job”.

He’s totally nailed the slightly geeky Spidey sense of humour

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This is so what Peter Parker would spend his free time doing.

He’s a real life superhero

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Even if he doesn’t actually fight crime with his gymnastics in real life (as far as we’re aware), Tom is super charitable, which is just as good. From hosting and presenting a special screening of Civil War in aid of The Lunchbowl Network, a charity caring for vulnerable children in Kenya, to using his superhero status to cheer up sick children, there’s no doubt that Tom is one of the good guys.

So through passion, hard work and basically just being Spidey anyway, Tom Holland has already proven he’s gonna smash it. Happy B-day Tom! This kid’s going far.