‘Spider-Man’ Star Tom Holland Talks His Place in the MCU and Secret Identities

There was a lot to take in with Marvel’s first trailer for Captain America: Civil War, including lots of Bucky / Winter Soldier action, heroic friends turning on one another, and the debut of Black Panther. One thing we didn’t see was Tom Holland, the young actor who will make his debut as Spider-Man in Civil War before embarking on his own solo adventure. Marvel will probably continue to hide the new Spidey for a while, but Holland has a few things to say about playing the character and his place in the MCU.

Sony and Marvel’s deal to cross Spider-Man over to the MCU is exciting, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer before we get our first look at Holland in costume as the famous web-crawler — we may not even see him at all until Civil War hits theaters next May. But Holland did speak with Superhero Hype about his part in the upcoming film and what makes it interesting:

I think one of the most interesting things about Peter Parker for us is that he’s the only person in the MCU now that has a secret identity, so we all know who everyone else is. I think it’s quite interesting to go back to that hiding behind a mask.

Based on Mark Millar’s acclaimed comic book series, Captain America: Civil War finds the Avengers divided when the government steps in to try and regulate their heroism. In the comics, this was known as the Superhuman Registration Act, which forced the characters to reveal their secret identities. Since the identities of most heroes in the MCU are not secret, the film version of the SRA is the Sokovia Accords.

But there are at least a couple of heroes whose identities remain hidden, including Spider-Man, so it’ll be interesting to see where he fits in with Civil War and the battle between Captain America and Iron Man — particularly given the age difference.

Holland also revealed that his new solo Spider-Man movie begins shooting next year in Atlanta because “it’s cheaper to build a New York set” at the studio there, though he believes they will spend “one week or two” shooting on location in New York.

Holland swings into action in Captain America: Civil War on May 6, 2016, followed by the new Spider-Man movie on July 28, 2017.