When David Ayer was onstage at Comic-Con, he seemed to be one of the few filmmakers to directly address the DC/Marvel rivalry. If anything, he seemed determined to instigate even more of it. “Let's get some serious East Coast/West Coast shit going,” he joked as he brought out his cast.
Well, it looks like some shots were fired overnight.
Tom Holland has, by all accounts I've heard so far, stepped right into his role as Peter Parker aka Spider-Man with aplomb. I have no doubt the kid's going to work well onscreen. The process by which he won the role was not an easy one, and he was up against some other talented young guys who could easily have gotten the role. Asa Butterfield was heavily tipped to be the one to beat, and rumor has it that it wasn't just the screen test that made Marvel pass on Butterfield. He was vocal about things on social media, which is Marvel's nightmare, and it gave them one more reason to pick Holland instead.
Holland must not have gotten that memo, though, and actor Joel Kinnaman, who is currently playing Rick Flagg for David Ayer's “Suicide Squad,” only encouraged the bad behavior which was on Instagram for a few hours in the middle of the night, wiped clean today by either one of the studios involved or by Kinnaman after what I can only assume were a series of panicked phone calls from Holland and his representatives.
That's just silly. Holland is a young dude, and he's having fun right now. I would hate to see this actually escalate into a problem for him. Besides… look at that wee li'l training cigar they gave him. How can anyone be mad after that?
There is a lesson here. Social media is tremendously fun and far-reaching, and when an actor knows how to play with the public without upsetting their corporate overlords, you get something like the absolutely delightful stream of lunacy that Hayley Atwell releases. People enjoy the way these celebrities humanize themselves these days, but it's a skill, and as long as people aren't giving away actual spoilers from films, I would hope there is some lenience for something that's seen as a blunder or a moment that's not fully-considered.
“Suicide Squad” is in theaters in August of 2016.
Tom Holland will swing into the Marvel universe in “Captain America: Civil War” on May 1, 2016. Unless Marvel's had him erased from reality. Which is possible.