First images of Tom Holland in Avengers: Endgame directors' new movie Cherry revealed

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Tom Holland and the Russo brothers reunite in new film Cherry

Tom Holland in Cherry
(Image credit: AGBO/Apple TV Plus)

the first look at Avengers: Endgame director Joe and Anthony Russo's new movie Cherry, starring Tom Holland, has been revealed. The film sees the Spider-Man actor play a veteran whose PTSD has led him to an opioid addiction that he funds through bank robberies.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, the Russos talked more about what we can expect from the movie. “[Holland’s character, Cherry] travels a great distance over a 15-year period,” Joe explained. “The movie’s broken up into six chapters that reflect those different periods, and each one has a different tone. It’s shot with different lenses, different production design. One’s got magical realism. Another chapter is absurdism. Another is horror… There’s a bit of gonzo in it. It’s raw in its tone. He’s a character in an existential crisis.”

For the Russos, the story is also close to home: “Ohio is unfortunately at ground zero in the fight against the opioid crisis," Joe said. "And we’ve got a lot of people in our family that have either passed on or died from the crisis, or are struggling with their current addiction. So, this is a very, very personal movie for us.”

The directors also had high praise for Holland, with Anthony commenting: “He’s just so likeable. We knew for this part we were going to need someone of Tom’s charisma to keep the audience from shutting down during the darker parts of the film. The darkest, most difficult sides of that character, he really embraced them and ran at them and tried to give them life within himself in a way that not a lot of people could pull off.”

As for the film itself, Joe talked about what he hopes Cherry accomplishes: “This is a movie that’s supposed to define the experience of having PTSD, the experience of being addicted to opioids,” he said. “And the mission of the film is to generate empathy, not to generate disdain, not to indict. It was critical that you empathise with his struggle and his journey because a lot of people are going through this, and they’re having a very human experience. I think empathy is in incredibly short supply right now in the world. And it’s a tragedy.”

Cherry releases on February 26, 2021, in cinemas, and March 12, 2021, on Apple TV Plus, with a screenplay penned by the directors’ sister Angela Russo-Otstot and based on Nico Walker’s novel of the same name. Until then, check out our guide to the must-see movies still coming to cinemas in 2020.

Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.