Let’s be serious for approximately three seconds: if Spider-Man: Brand New Day is climbing to the top of everyone’s watch list, we may need to investigate whether the plot is actually the reason. Because new BTS footage of Tom Holland filming the movie has arrived, and the man is once again making the Spider-Man suit look like it has a very specific job: keeping gay people from concentrating.
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The footage shows Holland shirtless while filming a hanging sequence, suspended upside down as part of the action. And yes, technically he is working. Technically, this is filmmaking. Technically, Spider-Man has always involved a considerable amount of hanging around.
But looking at these clips, suddenly the phrase “behind the scenes” feels like an extremely generous description of what is happening.
Tom Holland Is Hanging Around, And We Are Looking Respectfully
The BTS footage gives viewers a look at Holland between takes as he performs the hanging stunt. He is strapped into a harness, upside down, with his legs extended while the scene is being filmed.
New BTS footage of shirtless Tom Holland filming Spider-Man: Brand New Day
i have soo many thoughts but none of them can be said publicly oh my god tom… pic.twitter.com/pC2LnSHM49
— ★ (@POPin4k) September 29, 2026
It is a perfectly normal thing for an actor playing Spider-Man to do. The fact that Holland is shirtless is where things become considerably less academic.
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For a franchise that has spent years convincing audiences to care about multiverses, villains, superheroes and increasingly complicated timelines, the footage offers a much simpler viewing experience: Tom Holland hanging upside down without a shirt.
Honestly, sometimes cinema gives us exactly what we need. And while we obviously cannot prove that Holland’s physique is responsible for the movie’s success, it would be irresponsible to completely dismiss the possibility that certain viewers have suddenly developed a much stronger interest in Spider-Man’s production process.
Florence Pugh Has Tom Holland To Thank, Too
Interestingly, Holland’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day connections extend beyond the stunt work.
Florence Pugh has previously explained that Holland played a role in her becoming part of the Spider-Man universe, dating back to the period when her Black Widow character, Yelena Belova, was still establishing herself within Marvel.
Pugh said:
“Years ago, when I just kind of started my relationship with Marvel and Black Widow had come out, my Yelena wasn’t as obviously big as all of the other big superheroes,” she said. “He, on the red carpet of his previous movie, when someone said, ‘Who do you want to be in the next movie with? Do you want to be with Thor?’ I don’t remember the superheroes, but they were all massive superheroes, and he said, ‘No, actually, I want to do it with Florence Pugh, who plays Yelena.’”
And Holland really did publicly make the case for working with Pugh. At the 2021 premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Holland told Entertainment Tonight:
“I want to work with Florence Pugh. She’s amazing, she’s so good in [Black Widow], all the movies that she’s done. I think she’s fantastic, so I think a really cool Spider-Man, Black Widow movie would be a fun little twist.”
So, depending on how you look at it, Holland has apparently been using his influence for years to assemble exactly the kind of Marvel crossover people want to see.
Spider-Man, Florence Pugh And One Very Distracting Harness
The funny thing about Holland’s Spider-Man era is that the actor has always been required to do some genuinely demanding physical work. Flying through the air, flipping around, hanging from things and being suspended by wires are all part of the job.
This particular BTS footage simply gives the internet a little more material to appreciate the person underneath the superhero costume.
tom holland is just..ugh pic.twitter.com/pJpBpuZvLW
— brian. (@bxycrush) September 21, 2026
And that is where the Spider-Man: Brand New Day marketing strategy may have accidentally stumbled into something powerful.
Give people a Spider-Man movie and they will discuss the story. Give them Tom Holland upside down, shirtless and suspended from a harness, and suddenly everyone becomes deeply invested in stunt choreography.
Is Holland’s body the reason Spider-Man: Brand New Day is number one in history? There is no evidence for that. But is it a compelling theory? Absolutely.