It has been a crazy week in the world of Spider-Man. News recently broke that Disney (which owns Marvel Studios) and Sony (which owns the rights to the character of Spider-Man) no longer will be cooperating on the movies, meaning that Spider-Man, as played by Tom Holland, no longer will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cooler heads may eventually prevail, but for the time being, Holland and Spidey are back at Sony, and not at Disney, where he has been for the better part of five films.
Which made it extra strange when Tom Holland took the stage at Disney’s D23 in Anaheim to help promote an upcoming Pixar film, Onward, which he voices alongside Chris Pratt. The duo talked at length about the animated movie, ignoring the massive, Spider-Man-shaped elephant in the room. Until, after the presentation, Holland turned toward the gathered crowd and said:
Hey you guys, it’s been a crazy week. But I just want to tell you, from the bottom of my heart, that I love you 3,000.
Great, now I’m furious once again.
Tom Holland’s shout out, captured by our own Events Editor Eric Eisenberg, is a direct call back to Tony Stark’s conversation with this adolescent daughter in Avengers: Endgame. It has become a term of affection in the MCU, and among its fans, with the studio using it on a promotional poster that was given out to fans who came back to see Endgame on the big screen.
We didn’t expect Tom Holland to be able to address the studio squabble that might be keeping him out of the MCU in the future. In fact, addressing it from the stage of D23 could have even complicated matters even further – though social media posts between Holland and Robert Downey Jr. had several fans speculating that the two Marvel powerhouses were bridging gaps behind the scenes.
There was no additional news regarding Spider-Man’s fate in the MCU. Marvel Studios, instead, used its time on stage to share more details about Eternals, and to confirm that Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 would open in theaters on May 6, 2022.
But it was very sweet to hear Tom Holland react to the Disney fans who have helped make his version of Spider-Man a worldwide success. Now let’s just hope that Sony and Disney can go back to the negotiating table and strike a deal that keeps the web-slinger in the MCU, where he belongs.
