Tom Holland's Heroic Act That Helped Bring Spider-Man Back Into The MCU

Evidently, Tom Holland's a superhero on and off the big screen.

A new piece published by The Hollywood Reporter claims that Holland — who has played the friendly neighborhood hero Spider-Man since 2016's Captain America: Civil War — sprung into action and carried out some last-minute, heroic deeds to help bring Spidey back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In late August 2019, the web-crawler was forced to swing out of Marvel's movie world when it was announced that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures couldn't come to an agreement on how to establish new terms of the deal that allowed Holland's Spider-Man to appear in the MCU. Several weeks later, the two studios confirmed that they returned to the negotiating table and finally came up with a way to make everyone happy: Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce a third Spider-Man movie starring Holland, Marvel's parent company Disney will receive 25 percent of the profits from said threequel, and Spider-Man will appear in at least one more MCU movie. Cue the collective sigh of relief. It looks like that doozy of a cliffhanger will pay off, after all!

Striking the right revenue split apparently played a huge part in getting Marvel, Disney, and Sony executives back on the same page regarding their respective involvement in the Spider-Man film series. What was also a major deciding factor in sealing the new Spidey deal was Holland himself. According to sources close to THR, Holland, quote, "made multiple appeals" to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger and contacted Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman on numerous occasions to help facilitate a reconciliation between the two parties. The fact that Holland is set to star in another Sony project — the forthcoming film adaptation of the Uncharted video game series — probably didn't hurt.

It was certainly admirable of Holland to get in touch with Iger and Rothman and assist in bringing the two opposing studios to a resolution. It's also very much something Spider-Man would do: a scrappy, somewhat unlikely hero pulling himself out of the rubble to do the right thing. As heart-warming and heroic as Holland's reported appeals were, however, they aren't surprising when taking a look at how he responded to the Sony-Marvel split in the first place.

The first time Holland spoke about Spider-Man leaving the MCU was during D23 Expo on Saturday, August 24 — several days after the shocking news dropped. Holland's silence — and his alarmingly nonchalant behavior on social media — was cause for concern. Finally, when he piped up, he said exactly the right thing. He told fans:

"It's been a crazy week, but I want you to know I am grateful from the bottom of my heart, and I love you 3,000."

As time went on and Marvel and Sony showed no signs of getting back together for another Spider-Man flick, Holland maintained a diplomatic, optimistic attitude that never wavered. He refused to align himself with one studio over the other — even with millions of fans pulling him in different directions — and held his head high. The 23-year-old actor noted that Marvel helped make his dreams come true, and that he had, quote, "five amazing years" working under the House of Heroes, but knew that the future of Spider-Man would be, quote, "equally as awesome and amazing" and that Sony would, quote, "find new ways to make it even cooler."

Holland later assured his adoring fans that Sony would do right by Spider-Man even without Marvel involved. He told GQ's Zach Baron:

"Sony has also been really good to me, and the global success of Spider-Man: Far From Home is a real testament to their support, skill and commitment. The legacy and future of Spidey rests in Sony's safe hands. I really am nothing but grateful."

See where we're going with all this? Tom Holland truly is the definition of a stand-up guy, so it should come as no surprise that he went out of his way to get in touch with Disney's Bob Iger and Sony's Tom Rothman to figure out a way to end the fighting, get fans to smile again, and bring fat stacks of cash to both studios' bank accounts with a third Spider-Man movie and another MCU collaboration. With great power comes great responsibility, and Holland used his for good — just like Spider-Man would.

Fans can catch Holland back in the Spidey suit for the yet-untitled third Spider-Man film, set to launch in theaters on July 16, 2021.

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