For about a month last year, it looked like Sony would be pulling Tom Holland’s Spider-Man out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe due to financial disagreements with Disney. However, thanks to Holland’s help, eventually the two sides were able to come to an understanding, and a new deal is in place for this version of Spidey to stick around the MCU for a little longer.
However, if Disney and Sony hadn’t come up with this new deal, Tom Holland evidently approved of what the latter studio had in mind for transitioning Spider-Man out of the MCU. When recently asked how excited he was that Spidey is back in this superhero franchise, Holland responded:
I’m super excited. The future for Spider-Man was still very bright with Sony. We had a really, really wonderful idea how we could sort of transition into a Spider-Man without the MCU. Tom Rothman and Amy Pascal were really confident that they were gonna do justice and make a film of the caliber that Spider-Man requires.
Given how closely intertwined Spider-Man is in the MCU lore since being introduced in Captain America: Civil War, particularly due to his relationship with Iron Man, I’m curious what the Sony bigwigs envisioned for effectively removing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from this world. Unfortunately, Tom Holland didn’t elaborate on these plans, but it seems like he would have been okay with whatever they’d cooked up.
Ultimately though, Tom Holland is more pleased that Disney and Sony managed to come to a new arrangement, and he assisted in making it happened. The actor continued in his interview with MTV News:
But that said, I’m really glad to be back in the MCU and to have the team back together because I kind of feel like it’s where he belongs now. I’m really grateful that Bob Iger and Tom Rothman allowed me to be a part of the process of bringing him home. It was a pretty cool experience and also the best bragging rights ever. I saved Spider-Man.
Indeed he did, although Alan Horn, Walt Disney Studio’s co-chairman and chief creative officer, and Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony’s Motion Picture Group, both said last October that the fans also played a key role in the two studios coming back together to restart negotiations. The result is that not only will Spider-Man lead another MCU-set movie, he’ll also appear in a separate Marvel Studios film that hasn’t been revealed yet.
When we left off with Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Far From Home, not only had he been framed by Mysterio for the Elemental incident in London thanks to doctored footage aired by The Daily Bugle, but the illusion-casting villain also revealed Spidey’s secret identity to the public. Had the web-slinging hero been taken out of MCU after a cliffhanger like that, you can understand why many fans would have been disappointed to not get any resolution to that story.
While things are calm on the Spider-Man MCU front for now, it’s possible that could change. Disney and Sony could find itself back at the negotiating table in the coming years, and Sony may decide then that it’s time to pull Spider-Man out of the MCU. In other words, this “wonderful” idea Tom Holland alluded to could still be implemented down the line.
Let’s also not forget that the MCU and Sony’s own live action Marvel universe look like they’re about to become closely intertwined, judging by the first Morbius trailer. That indicates that Sony might be looking to make use of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man for its own purposes beyond his standalone movies. With Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige having said that Spidey is the only hero with “the superpower to cross between Sony and Marvel's cinematic universes,” it’ll be interesting to see what the future holds in store for this incarnation of the character.
The next Spider-Man movie spins its web in theaters on July 16, 2021, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more updates on how it’s coming along. Be sure to also look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else is coming up in Phase 4 and beyond.
