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SYFY WIRE Tom Holland

This is heavy: Tom Holland says there have been talks for him to star in a Back to the Future remake

By Josh Weiss
Tom Holland Back to the Future Deepfake

Like Casablanca or Citizen Kane, Back to the Future is one of those Hollywood classics that should never be remade or rebooted. But as we all know, remakes, reboots, and general reimaginings of established franchises are par for the course these days, which means that Robert Zemeckis' time-travel masterwork may not go untouched for much longer.

Speaking with BBC Radio 1's Ali Plumb, Tom Holland revealed that there have been some talks about bringing the iconic sci-fi series back to the big screen with him playing one of the leads. If not Marty McFly, then probably a character very much like him — or so we postulate, since details are pretty light.

It's enough to make you yell "Great Scott!" in shocked and affronted tones.

"I’d be lying if I said there hadn’t been conversations in the past about doing some sort of remake. But that film is the most perfect film, or one of the most perfect films; one that could never be made better," said Holland, who could have easily based part of his Peter Parker performance on Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly. He had to have, right?

The MCU actor also broke his silence on that viral Deepfake, which turned him and Robert Downey Jr. into Marty and Doc Brown, respectively.

"If Downey and I could just shoot that one scene that they remade for fun, he could pay for it because he’s got loads of money," continued Holland. "I would do it for my fee and we could remake that scene. I think we owe it to Deepfake because they did such a good job. At first, I was almost like really offended. I almost thought, ‘I need to call my lawyer right now and sue someone.’ [I was like] ‘This is great, I’m gonna get paid today!’ But I didn’t [sue] because I thought it was a great video. But yeah, I’m think I’m gonna speak to Robert and see if we can try to recreate something for Deepfake."

If Tinseltown ever does dare to cross that sacred line and do something with Back to the Future, it most likely won't have the support of trilogy co-creator/screenwriter Bob Gale.

"You know, you don't sell your kids into prostitution. It was the wrong thing to do," he recently told the BBC, referring to how the studio tried to pressure him and Zemeckis into making another installment after the final film in 1990. "We put 'The End' at the end of Part III ... Plus Michael J. Fox isn't in the shape to do a movie, and nobody wants to see Marty McFly having Parkinson's disease, and nobody wants to see another actor playing Marty McFly if it's supposed to be a continuation."

Michael J. Fox Back to the Future

Rather, Gale is throwing his support behind a Back to the Future stage musical.

"We learn from the fact that so many studios have gone back to the well on some of their franchise properties too many times, and the audiences are disappointed and say, 'Oh my god, they ruined my childhood,'" he continued. "We don't want to ruin anybody's childhood, and doing a musical was the perfect way to give the public more Back to the Future without messing up what has gone before."

You can next catch Holland in Pixar's Onward, which opens in theaters on March 6.