“Why does this look like a UFC poster?”: First Look of the New Romeo Tom Holland With His Juliet Garners Harsh Feedback From Fans

Tom Holland's Romeo with his Juliet doesn't seem to be appealing too much to fans.

Written by: Mahin
Reviewed by: Swagata
tom holland, francesca amewudah-rivers
Credits: @franarivers/IG.

SUMMARY

  • Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers' first look as Romeo and Juliet in Jamie Lloyd’s play garnered sarcastic and negative reviews from fans, who criticized the lack of chemistry between the duo.
  • Fans expressed dissatisfaction with the casting choice and the perceived lack of authenticity in portraying Shakespeare's iconic love story.
  • Social media reactions included jokes comparing the images to promotional posters for a UFC match and complaints about what was seen as a controversially racist casting decision.
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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 his Romeo & Juliet play 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.

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Tom Holland in a still from The Devil All The Time.
Tom Holland in a still from The Devil All The Time.

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

The Romeo & Juliet crew. | Credit: @tomholland2013/IG.
The Romeo & Juliet crew. | Credit: @tomholland2013/IG.

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.

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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 the TomHollandNet blog page by the handle @neenaatyvm as seen below:

However, instead of garnering praise from fans for doing something new and out of the blue, this version of Tom Holland as 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’s Romeo & Juliet

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. | Credit: @franarivers/IG.
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. | Credit: @franarivers/IG.

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 up fans’ 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.

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Others, in the meanwhile, are still complaining about what they deem to be a controversially racist matter regarding the casting choice. All in all, here are some of their backlash-filled views on X:

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From what it seems, this part of the fandom isn’t happy at all with 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.

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Written by Mahin Sultan

Articles Published: 1234

Mahin Sultan is a News Content Writer at FandomWire. With almost one year's worth of experience in her field, she has explored and attained a deep understanding of numerous topics in various niches, mostly entertainment.

An all-things-good enthusiast, Mahin is currently pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Commerce, and her love for entertainment has given her a solid foundation of reporting in the same field. Besides being a foodie, she loves to write and spends her free time either with her nose buried in a good book or binging on COD or K-dramas, anime, new movies, and TV serials (the awesome ones, obviously).

So far, Mahin's professional portfolio has more than 500 articles written on various niches, including Entertainment, Health and wellbeing, and Fashion and trends, among others.