Joe and Anthony Russo, key figures in the construction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and directors of Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Civil War and many more Marvel movies, gave Tom Holland an interesting challenge when first telling him how to play Peter Parker. According to ScreenRant, when introducing Spidey to the MCU in 2016’s Civil War, the brothers instructed Holland to know more about film than Peter Parker did.

While this may seems strange at first, given Holland’s profession as an actor and deep experience in the film industry, Peter’s status as a cinephile is no joke, and neither is Holland’s relatively young age. In Civil War, Spider-Man employs his extensive film knowledge to subdue Ant-Man, roping around his legs in the same tactic used by Luke Skywalker in 1980’s The Empire Strike Back to defeat the giant AT-AT’s. 

Their direction and the challenge given to him was crucial to Holland’s depiction of Peter because, according to the Russo’s, by the time Holland read the script, he hadn’t even seen The Empire Strikes Back, which was released almost twenty years before Holland was born (1996). The Russo’s then showed Holland a number of other classic, older films that he had not yet seen.

 This is an interesting and funny look into one of the many details given to MCU actors in their depiction of our beloved heroes, which are typically hidden under strong lock and key.