Jon Watts is credited as the “director†of Spider-Man: Homecoming, but make no mistake: Zendaya was in charge of this set. The Tom Holland-starring reboot leans into making Peter Parker as much of a regular teen as possible (Holland even spent time at a Bronx high school to prepare). Marvel and Sony are tag-teaming the movie, and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and producer Amy Pascal wanted “a movie as if John Hughes had directed it,†according to Hollywood Reporter story about the details of the collab. In Holland’s recollection of his on-set experience, this tantalizing detail emerged: Zendaya made everyone play a “really interesting game†that only a charming, charismatic, beautiful person would invent:
Even the on-set bonding of the young cast seemed straight out of a Hughes movie: During production in Atlanta, Watts sent the actors out for a picnic in a park and to visit an aquarium.
“Zendaya came up with a really interesting game that brought everyone closer together immediately, where you sit in a circle and you honestly have to tell everyone your first impression of meeting them,†recalls Holland.
Indeed: This game — which is, admittedly, deliciously high school — sounds terrifying for everyone who is not Zendaya.