"I Pulled Every Muscle In My Stomach": Tom Holland Reveals He Can Still Do A Spider-Man Backflip Even As He Approaches 30, But Not Without Paying The Price

Tom Holland recently had a bad injury while attempting a Spider-Man backflip. After leading some of the best Spider-Man movies of all time, the actor will soon be back in the MCU in a major way. 2025 is bound to be a big year for Holland, who is expected to shoot Avengers: Doomsday, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and Spider-Man 4 before the year is over. At 28, the actor shows no signs of stopping as his Marvel hero, but Spider-Man 4‘s story might have to come to life with fewer backflips for Holland.

Speaking with Men’s Health, Tom Holland explained that he pulled every muscle in his stomach because of a backflip. Holland revealed that during a trip to Cornwall, England, one of his young cousins asked the actor to do a backflip. While the Spider-Man star managed to successfully land the backflip, something he has done several times over the years, Holland pulled many muscles. The actor could not laugh for weeks due to the pain in his stomach, but that will not be a problem for his busy schedule, including Holland’s upcoming MCU movies. Check out the full quote below:

“So I went outside and I was getting ready, and I was thinking, ‘I can do this. I can totally do this. I’ve done this thousands of times.’ And Z[endaya] was there, and she was like, ‘Are you sure you can still do this?’ I actually did land it, but I pulled every muscle in my stomach, because when you do a backflip, it’s all about extending up as much as you can and then tucking. For weeks, I could not laugh because my stomach was so sore.”

What Tom Holland’s Backflip Story Means For His Spider-Man Future

The MCU Actor Has To Take Care From Now On

Tom Holland has a history with backflips. It all started due to his background in gymnastics, which helped him land the MCU’s coveted Spider-Man role. During his audition process to play Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, Holland demonstrated his skills with backflips, parkour, and more. That helped the actor secure the role, as Holland not only acted perfectly as Peter Parker onscreen but was also able to physically embody the role as close to the acrobatic Spider-Man seen in the comics as possible, which made him the ideal MCU Spider-Man.

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However, as Holland has gotten older and the years since he trained in gymnastics have made him lose more of his skills with backflips, the actor has to be more careful. A muscle tear could throw a wrench in Holland’s MCU schedule, his other projects, and his life in general. With a true army of stunt doubles ready to do the more demanding physical work for the actor in Marvel’s superhero movies and other blockbusters Holland might sign on to do, it would probably be better if Holland took a little step back in scenes like backflips to be safe.

Spider-Man’s Stunt Requirements Make Him A More Challenging Role In Several Ways

The Most Popular Marvel Hero

Every superhero role is challenging in its own way. However, since Spider-Man is the most popular Marvel hero, audiences are well aware of his acrobatic abilities. These have been widely shown in the comics, animated series, video games, and movies. As such, whoever plays Spider-Man will always end up having to do right by the role, which includes making the web-swinging and fight scenes look great. While CGI is definitely involved in the process, Spider-Man movies have always had their fair share of practical effects.

Multiple videos of Andrew Garfield’s stunt doubles swinging with ropes and cables in real life have become popular. Besides The Amazing Spider-Man franchise’s use of practical effects for Spidey’s signature web-swinging, Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker has also been one to use quite a bit of these, even with a healthy dose of CGI on his suit and fight scenes. A video of Holland running on a bridge while crashing into cars and jumping off a springboard became popular. The video below also highlights Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s practical action and how much Holland actually did of it.

Due to the physically demanding nature of the Spider-Man role, the character becomes harder for actors to play over a long stretch of time. This is shown by Tom Holland’s new reveal. When he joined the MCU, the Spider-Man star had no issues performing backflips without the help of wires. However, as he nears 30, Holland has to stop doing those to avoid pulling muscles again. This shows that Spider-Man’s acrobatic nature is hard for an actor to maintain for a long time.

Our Take On Tom Holland’s Backflip Story And His Spider-Man Future

Tom Holland looking offscreen as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the MCU

While Holland’s Spider-Man has become known for his physicality and how much the actor does of his stunts, the risk of an injury might be too big for things to remain as they are. If the actor does not feel safe to do a determined move, as he explained was the case before the backflip that led to him pulling multiple muscles, then I think Holland should just let his stunt doubles handle those. That said, with wire work and movie magic, I’m sure Tom Holland could still do plenty of Spider-Man‘s stunts without injuring himself.

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Spider-Man 4 is the first sequel to the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland as the titular wall-crawler. After wiping his identity for the public’s memory in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker continues his crime-fighting adventures without the aid of Iron Man technology or the support of his former allies.

Release Date: July 24, 2026
Prequel(s): Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: No Way Home