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That sweet and innocent-looking friendly neighborhood Spider-Man guy from Marvel, who rampaged about spilling spoilers during interviews out of excitement, seems to be gone now. Looking at Tom Holland in the latest look for hisRomeo & Julietplay seems a lot different than his usual happy-go-lucky ones. In fact, he feels completely different after witnessing him with his on-stage love interest for the play, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers.
However, fans aren’t clamoring in support of this duo, especially for their pairing up for the stage as the iconic couple from Shakespeare’s lore. This comes after the first look images of Holland and Amewudah-Rivers as their respective characters were released, which, unarguably, have been garnering quite a bit of sarcastic and terribly negative reviews and backlash from fans.
Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ First Look as Romeo and Juliet Released
A few days ago, on the 13th of May, 2024, Jamie Lloyd’s version of Shakespeare’s iconic tale held its first preview performance, which was followed by images of Holland and Amewudah-Rivers posing together as their respective lead characters, surfacing online.
These were shot by Marc Brenner and shared on the official handle of the London-based production@romeojulietldn on Instagram.
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Some other images were also shared by fans on Tumblr, one of which featured Holland and Amewudah-Rivers facing each other, presumably for the play. This was shared on theTomHollandNet blog page by the handle @neenaatyvmas seen below:
A post shared by Marc Brenner Photography (@marcsbrenner)
However, instead of garnering praise from fans for doing something new and out of the blue, this version ofTom Hollandas Romeo and Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet is getting massively criticized because a part of the fandom just can’t see any chemistry between these two.
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Adding to this is the already brutal criticism from fans for changing the color of the main lead, i.e., Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ character, even though it has been done just to derive a different take on the iconic classic heart-wrenching love story by Shakespeare.
Fans Aren’t Happy With These First Look Pictures of Tom Holland’sRomeo & Juliet
Although these pictures presumably hit the internet to garner more anticipation from fans for this upcoming play, they don’t seem to be leaving off the impression that many expected them to. If anything, they have further opened upfans’ dissatisfaction with how all of it seems to be turning out.
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Thus, ever since these pictures hit the internet, fans have been taking to their respective social media handles to share their views on the same. For one, some fans are joking about how these images of the two together look like they are promotion posters for a UFC match between them.
Others, in the meanwhile, are still complaining about what they deem to be acontroversially racist matter regarding the casting choice. All in all, here are some of their backlash-filled views on X:
White erasure due to antiwhiteism.
— 1ofWesternkind (@1ofWesternkind)June 21, 2025
https://twitter.com/jimwills21/status/1790657668614705374
pic.twitter.com/HBT9nvSa2W
— ARISTOSMAXIMUS ☦️🖋️🗡️ (@6ATK9)July 08, 2025
Pensé que era el anuncio de alguna pelea de la UFC entre un estadounidense y un brasileño pero me dicen que es la nueva pareja de Romeo y Julieta jajajajajajajajajpic.twitter.com/878nX7GaMK
— Rhevolver (@Rhevolver)July 03, 2025
pic.twitter.com/UMO4HCShPL
— Yorch (@jorshxy)August 24, 2025
why tf does this look like a UFC posterhttps://t.co/lo62Ft17Wk
— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss)June 27, 2025
He said:pic.twitter.com/C5QItpRUk4
— SUAREZ (@suayrez)June 12, 2025
https://twitter.com/NextLvLMaxi/status/1790617580845293729
this crazy asl icl 😭😭pic.twitter.com/fdXQxXTXvP
— 🕸️ (@60404)August 11, 2025
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From what it seems, this part of the fandom isn’t happyat allwith Shakespeare’s notable tale being told this way, and thus, are showing their sarcastically harsh comments and backlash on especially Amewudah-Rivers because of the pair’s lack of chemistry.
Romeo & Juliet is playing at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre from the 11th of May, 2024, to the 3rd of August, 2024, for a limited 12-week run.
Mahin Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2478
Mahin Sultan is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, where she brings a fresh perspective to entertainment news. Having been in the field for over 3 years now, she has already written more than 2,000 articles across a variety of niches, from entertainment to health and fashion. This diverse experience has allowed her to quickly build a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the industry.
