Tom Holland Brought Insomniac’s Spider-Man Finishers Into Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is bringing some familiar video game flair to Peter Parker’s fights. Tom Holland said Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man series influenced the finishing moves used by his version of the hero in the upcoming movie.

Holland discussed the connection during the film’s premiere in an interview with IGN. He also revealed that he was still playing the game while promoting the movie, using it as a way to settle down after struggling to sleep before the premiere.

“I was actually playing the game last night,” Holland said. “I couldn’t sleep last night; I was so excited about today. I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do, and I was like, ‘I’ll just throw the game on and have some fun.'”

That time with Insomniac’s Spider-Man also fed into his performance. Holland explained that many of the ways Peter finishes a fight in Brand New Day came from the PlayStation games.

“For me, a lot of those finishing moves, a lot of our stuff was influenced by that stuff,” Holland said.

The stunt team looked to the games, too

Holland was not the only person on the production drawing ideas from Insomniac’s take on the character. Director Destin Daniel Cretton said several action designers and stunt performers were dedicated players who wanted to recreate the games’ rapid web shots, flips, and button-combo-style attacks on film.

Cretton said members of the stunt team would capture moments from the games and bring those references to the writers’ room. The team would then discuss how to adapt the moves for live action rather than copying them exactly.

“A lot of the action designers and stunt people we had were huge gamers,” Cretton said. “They were able to experience things in those games that made them excited, and they would just screengrab the moves they really liked and bring them into the writers’ room and show it to me. And then we’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’s sick. Let’s try to figure out how to do that for real.'”

The connection between the movie and the games has also appeared in the other direction. Holland and Zendaya have previously spoken warmly about Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, and the actors’ enthusiasm for the series has helped underline the crossover between the two versions of Peter Parker.

Players can also dress Peter in the Brand New Day suit in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, giving fans a way to bring the film’s look into Insomniac’s game while watching for familiar combat ideas on the big screen. The suit also appears in MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, according to Push Square.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is releasing in theaters in the UK on July 29 and will release in the US on July 31.

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