Tom Holland says the highly anticipated 'Spider-Man' film is 'not fun': 'It's dark and it's sad, and it's going to be really affecting'

• Tom Holland said his third Spider-Man film has a darker plotline compared to its predecessors.
• "What people will be really surprised about is that it's not fun, this film," Holland said.

Actor Tom Holland said the upcoming "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is "dark and it's sad, and it's going to be really affecting."

In an interview with Total Film on Tuesday, Holland, who plays the titular superhero, said the plotline of the highly anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel from Sony takes a departure from the series' light-hearted predecessors, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home."

"What people will be really surprised about is that it's not fun, this film," Holland said. "It's dark and it's sad, and it's going to be really affecting. You're going to see characters that you love go through things that you would never wish for them to go through."

The actor, who first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in red-and-blue lyrca in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War," said he was "really excited" to lean into a different side of Peter Parker in the film.

"Peter Parker is always someone who's looking up. He's always really positive," Holland said. "He's always like, 'I can fix this. I can do this.' Whereas in this film, he feels like he's met his match."

"He's like, 'I don't know what to do.' That was an aspect of the character that I'd never seen before, and I was really, really excited to try to tackle," he added.

The interview comes a day after Marvel released the official movie poster for the Spider-Man sequel little over a month before its slated release, teasing appearances from past Spider-Man villains including Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus, from "Spider-Man 2" (2004), starring Tobey Maguire as the iconic hero, and Jamie Foxx's Electro from 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," with Andrew Garfield playing the titular web-slinger.

Holland said he's yet to see the full film, which will debut in North America on December 17, but dubbed what he has seen "the best work we've ever done."

"It's the best Spider-Man film that we've ever made," he said. "I really don't think fans are at all ready for what they've put together. I know that I'm not ready, and I know that it's going to be brutal."