Tom Holland Strikes Again: Accidentally Spoils MCU Surprise One Week Early

Tom Holland did the most Tom Holland thing possible: he casually dropped a major detail about the new Spider- Man movie before anyone was supposed to know it. And yes, it involves a surprise writer with a very buzzy resume.

So, what did Tom say?

On the 'Good Hang with Amy Poehler' podcast, Holland was talking through a day on set for 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day ' when he mentioned that he and Zendaya thought a particular scene just was not landing. They took it to the team, director Cretton agreed it needed work, and then Holland told this story:

"He just said to the crew, 'Everyone can go home.' We're going to sit down, and we're going to rewrite this scene with the writer, Justin, who is such a talent."

Small problem: at that point, there was no publicly announced 'Justin' writing on the movie. Fans heard it, grabbed their magnifying glasses, and started digging.

And the mystery 'Justin' is...

Less than a week later, reports confirmed what everyone suspected: the Justin in question is Justin Kuritzkes, the screenwriter behind 'Challengers ' and 'Queer'. He came in to revise the 'Brand New Day' script and will get a writing credit for it. For context, the initial draft was written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

Why Kuritzkes is an unexpected (but intriguing) pick

Kuritzkes is best known for his collaborations with Luca Guadagnino on 'Challengers' and 'Queer'—talky, character-forward projects that are more about messy relationships than web-slinging. He has not worked with Marvel before. The connective tissue here is Zendaya, who starred in 'Challengers', which makes you wonder how much of her experience with Kuritzkes influenced bringing him in for this polish.

He has brushed up against superhero territory once before: Kuritzkes was involved with a planned 'Sgt. Rock' film for DC Studios. That project never made it to production and was shelved.

Quick timeline

• On 'Good Hang with Amy Poehler', Holland recounts he and Zendaya flagged a scene that was not working; director Cretton paused filming to rewrite it with "the writer, Justin".
• At the time, no writer named Justin was publicly tied to 'Brand New Day', setting off a round of fan speculation.
• Within a week, reports confirm Justin Kuritzkes revised the script and will receive a writing credit; Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote the original draft.

Holland, spoilers, and that podcast detour

This is very on-brand for Holland, who has a long history of accidentally spilling Marvel secrets and then laughing about it later on press tours. Same podcast, different topic: he also opened up about why he has not hosted 'SNL ' yet, citing his dyslexia and the anxiety of reading cue cards live. Amy Poehler’s response—reminding him that "people have fully been on drugs and hosted"—was peak Amy and also a pretty gentle nudge.

Big picture

'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' is under a microscope anyway—Holland’s next chapter as Peter Parker after the reality-bending chaos of 'No Way Home' will do that—so a stealth addition like Kuritzkes naturally raises eyebrows. Whether he handled a targeted rewrite or something meatier is still unclear, but it is now official: he touched the script.

'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' swings into theaters on July 31.