SALT LAKE CITY — The latest actor to play Spider-Man has seven upcoming films listed on IMDB, but somehow, Tom Holland has made time for yet another event this year: Utah's FanX Fall Salt Lake Comic Convention.
The organizers of FanX announced on Tuesday that Holland, the 23-year-old British actor currently starring in Marvel's "Spider-Man" franchise as the masked web-slinger, is coming to Utah for their annual comic convention, held Sept. 5-7.
For co-organizer Dan Farr, getting Holland on the roster for this year's event is a testament to the convention's fans.
"(Holland) decided after the release of 'Far From Home,' that he would do few (events) this year," he said. "But it's just really lucky for us to have the right elements and I do say that it's the reputation of the fans here in Utah that gives us the gusto to give us what we need (to bring in guests)."
Farr said that he was told Holland fielded 12 offers to appear at events this year, but in the end, he chose Utah and two other events that had "strong reputations." According to Farr, it is FanX's reputation that brings in the high-profile guests that the convention's attendees have come to expect.
"We just had to work — years of just trying our best to take care of people," Farr said. "From the convention standpoint, we need to operate in a way that (the guests are) happy, and they have a good experience — you know, so they're not standing in an airport waiting for somebody to pick them up. But really, it comes down to the fans. They have to know that the fans are going to be excited to see them."
In addition to Holland, who was named by Ranker.com as fans' No. 1 favorite Spider-Man, this fall's convention will also host Kiefer Sutherland, Matthew Lewis, Christina Ricci, Dolph Lundgren, Megan Follows, Jason Isaacs and many other actors and voice actors. Farr said that while they are getting close to securing all of this convention's guests, there could be a few last-minute announcements. He said that four years ago, when the convention announced actor Chris Evans — best known for playing Steve Rogers, aka Captain America — "Avengers" actors Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and Hayley Atwell decided to join the convention, as well.
With the fall convention just a month or so away, Farr confirmed that FanX organizers have no plans for a spring FanX convention — stating that he's "80-90% certain" that they will not do a spring event, choosing instead to focus their energies on their big convention in the fall.
"We want to make sure that we always do our best to over-deliver," he said. "We want to make sure the event is better than what people expect. And so I think the extra time going into it, it's going to help a lot."