Tom Holland’s Spider-Man never really left the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not onscreen anyways. Nevertheless, his return and the mending of the fences between Sony and Marvel Studios, which will ensure his place in Phase 4, has been met with widespread excitement and gratitude from fans and the actors of the MCU. And that includes even Mark Ruffalo. The actor who plays the Incredible Hulk made it clear that he’s psyched about Spider-Man’s return to the MCU, saying:
I think it's amazing. He's a great guy, he's a great actor, and yeah. I had a good feeling that they would work it out. It's good for them, and I was sad that that it would even… I just can't even imagine, after what we've all done together, like, how you would separate them.
Like the rest of us (sans our own Mike Reyes), Mark Ruffalo is happy that Spider-Man is back in the MCU after his brief exit. The three-time Oscar nominee, who next stars in this month’s Dark Waters, clearly thinks very highly of Tom Holland, both as a person and as an actor, so he is psyched that the young star will continue to be a part of this film universe.
While there were some dark days for many Spider-Man fans back in August when Sony announced that Spidey would not be in future MCU movies, it seems that Mark Ruffalo remained optimistic. As the actor tells ET, he had a feeling that things would work out and that Sony and Marvel Studios would come to some sort of agreement to keep the character in the MCU.
He’s not the only one, a hilarious Jeff Goldblum also expressed a belief that the situation would work out and ultimately it did. That’s a great thing in Mark Ruffalo’s estimation, for both Sony and Marvel.
Mark Ruffalo was actually sad that the situation got to the point where Spider-Man might not continue on in the MCU after the wall crawler’s fruitful tenure since Captain America: Civil War. That’s why he is so psyched that things turned out as they did. Mark Ruffalo also brings up a great point and one that many of us expressed when the possibility of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker not being in the MCU first presented itself: how do you separate them?
Tom Holland’s superhero has quickly become a cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with the exit of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America and soon (probably) Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, he is arguably the MCU’s most popular character. Like Ben Mendelsohn said, Spidey is one of the MCU’s “motherfucking pornstars.” His absence would be keenly felt.
You can’t extract him after his Phase 3 appearances in the MCU’s biggest movies to date without leaving a hole, not to mention the narrative explanations such a thing would require. That’s why a diminished role for him in the future seems like a real possibility, to insulate the universe should this issue pop up again.
But for the time being, Spidey is back home. Maybe now we can even see Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo’s characters get some screen time together. We don’t even know when Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk will show up next but it would be cool to see the MCU’s biggest hero hanging out with one of its smallest.
Check out our guide to keep track of Marvel’s Phase 4 movies and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest superhero movie news.
