Next year is shaping up to be a big one for Tom Holland, as he has both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey releasing on the 2026 movies schedule. Beyond that, it’s unclear what movie he’ll tackle next, but the chances of one of them moving forward just plummeted. This is even worse news for those of you who like seeing Holland bust out his dance moves for roles.
Back in 2021, during the promotional circuit for Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland revealed that he’d play Fred Astaire in a movie about the actor/dancer/singer who was Hollywood’s most famous stars for a large chunk of the 20th century. Four years later, there haven’t been any major updates on where things stand with the Sony Pictures biopic, but Astaire’s widow, Robyn Smith Astaire, is determined to make sure it never gets made. TMZ obtained a copy of a legal letter that Robyn sent to producer Amy Pascal laying out how she and Fred’s estate hasn’t authorized or granted permission for her late husband to be portrayed in this biopic or any other movie.
Robyn, who married Fred Astaire in 1980 when he was 81 and she was 35, went on to say how her late husband “was explicit in his Will that he did not want his life story to be depicted on screen,” and she “fully respects and upholds those wishes.” She intends to take legal action if Sony moves forward with the Tom Holland-led biopic and claims that the studio approved it. TMZ later published an update from a source who claims that this Fred Astaire biopic is based on a book for which Sony has the rights.
If that is indeed true, Robyn Smith Astaire is making it abundantly clear she will not support this Fred Astaire biopic if it gets made. Again, Sony hasn’t officially provided any update on the biopic’s status, though I imagine this unnamed source would have said something if the studio had decided to shelve it. I’m also curious about why she’s expressing her disapproval of the project four years after Tom Holland’s casting was announced. Perhaps she got wind of some notable progress finally being made and acted accordingly.
So will Sony still want to move forward with the Fred Astaire biopic if Robyn Smith Astaire is so firmly against it? Does she have enough legal recourse to perhaps even stop the movie from being made altogether, book rights aside? It’s hard to say when those questions will be answered, but we’ll certainly keep our eyes peeled for new developments.
In the meantime, Tom Holland returns to the big screen first when The Odyssey opens on July 17, 2026, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day follows on July 31, exactly two weeks later. The last project Holland acted in, the psychological thriller miniseries The Crowded Room, can be streamed with an Apple TV+ subscription.