‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Cast Delights Hospitalized Children, Except for the One Kid Who Likes Batman
When you’ve been fortunate enough to land the headlining role in a potentially lucrative film franchise, the least you can do is give a little back. Superhero actors making guest appearances in hospitals to spread a little cheer to bed-ridden children has become an increasingly common practice in recent years, with Chrises Evans and Pratt both leveraging their celebrity as Captain America and Star-Lord, respectively, to brighten sickly youngsters’ days. It’s a harmless PR stunt — the movie gets some positive, feel-good publicity while making some kid’s day/week/life, and everyone walks away smiling.
The cast of the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming recently suited up for a visit to the New York Presbyterian Hospital, where actors Tom Holland (playing the web-head in the 2017 release), and Jacob Batalon (portraying Peter Parker’s frequent ally Ned Leeds), along with pop star Zendaya (supposedly slated for the latest iteration of Mary Jane Watson) delighted some lucky young patients. Collider notes that she posted a short video clip of the encounter to Twitter, wherein a boy named Nicholas makes no bones about which superhero he’d rather be hanging out with.
That seems like a low blow, but you can hardly blame the boy. After all, Spider-Man: Homecoming hasn’t come out yet. It doesn’t even have a proper trailer! When Spidey pulled his mask off to reveal that he’s Tom Holland, the best the actor could have hoped for would be “Hey, weren’t you in like ten minutes of Captain America 3?” (Best-case scenario: the little boy bursts out “I remember you from In the Heart of the Sea! I love the cinema of Ron Howard.”) What’d he expect? Hospitalized children can’t spend all day reading Deadline, keeping up with the latest casting developments in gestating tentpoles.