The Odyssey Finally Brings Tom Holland and Tom Holland Together

Years of British historian Tom Holland being confused with British Spider-Man actor Tom Holland online have reached a pleasing high point, as the pair have finally gotten together for the former’s enormously popular podcast, The Rest Is History, which he co-hosts with fellow historian Dominic Sandbrook.

Holland and Holland leaned into the oft-repeated social media mix-up by recreating the “Spider-Man pointing” meme before sitting down in their chairs, both marked “Tom Holland,” to discuss Spidey Holland’s new Christopher Nolan movie, The Odyssey.

Viewers of the video version of the podcast were swift with their own jokes about the Holland vs. Holland encounter, with one writing “Legendary superhero meets a guy who was in the Uncharted movie,” while another posted, “My favourite historian meets the guy who always comes up when I google search for him.”

Historian Holland previously praised Nolan’s upcoming fantasy action movie after attending the London premiere, suggesting that those who have expressed negative opinions or made judgements about the film’s creative choices before even seeing it may be “missing out,” and in the podcast episode, which you can check out below, Spidey Holland also seemed keen to discuss the ways in which Nolan has “pushed the boundaries” of the perceived historical accuracy of The Odyssey, noting that Homer’s ancient Greek epic has been subject to a “humongous game of telephone” over the years.

“Odysseus’ side of the story, Matt’s side of the story, represents the myth,” Holland explained to Holland. “And this humongous game of telephone has been played with this text. You know, it wasn’t written down for hundreds of years. There was a dark period in ancient Greece where no one would write anything down, so they would sing the song. So to me, what I love about the creative choices that Chris has made on that side of the story is that he’s kind of pushed the boundaries of what might be deemed historically accurate or reality, because that is the myth.”

Actor Holland has been making the rounds in a PR blitz over the past month or so, promoting both The Odyssey, where he portrays Telemachus, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, where he will reprise the role of wall-crawler Peter Parker for Sony and Marvel in what is expected to be an absolute slam-dunk summer blockbuster.

The Odyssey is set for release on July 17, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day is heading for a July 31 release.