Tom Holland recently teased an exit from the “Spider-Man” franchise, but producer Amy Pascal says the actor isn’t going anywhere. Speaking to Fandango to promote the upcoming release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Pascal said Holland’s time as the web-slinger is far from over. Holland’s future has been something of an uncertainty as “No Way Home” marked the last film under Sony and Disney’s current agreement to share the character, thus permitting Holland to appear in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to Pascal, that agreement is set to continue following “No Way Home.”
“This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel — [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie,” said Pascal, who is also the former head of Sony Pictures. “We are getting ready to make the next ‘Spider-Man’ movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We’re thinking of this as three films, and now we’re going to go onto the next three. This is not the last of our MCU movies…Yes, Marvel and Sony are going to keep going together as partners.”
Holland stirred up buzz around his potential “Spider-Man” exit earlier this month after telling GQ magazine, “Maybe it is time for me to move on. Maybe what’s best for Spider-Man is that they do a Miles Morales film. I have to take Peter Parker into account as well, because he is an important part of my life. If I’m playing Spider-Man after I’m 30, I’ve done something wrong.”
Holland’s iteration of Spider-Man almost got booted from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019 after Disney and Sony struggled to come to terms on a new agreement to share the character. Holland proved to be an instrumental figure in bringing the two studios together to find common ground, revealing on a December 2019 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he had a drunken conversation with then-Disney boss Bob Iger that saved Spider-Man from leaving the MCU.
“My family and I went to the pub quiz in our local town,” Holland said. “We’re doing a quiz and I’m three pints in, haven’t eaten much, and I get a phone call from an unknown number and I have a feeling. I’m like, ‘I think this is Bob Iger but I’m drunk.’”
A drunken Holland picked up the phone and “wept” to Iger over the possibility of his Spider-Man character being removed from the MCU because of the studios’ disagreement. “I was really emotional because I felt like it was all coming to an end,” Holland said.
Looking ahead to a new agreement, Amy Pascal told Fandango, “Spider-Man is always very special and different from everything else, but I think the beautiful thing is you had two big corporations that decided to work together for the good of the story and the character, and I don’t think that’s always the spirit that you see. Yeah, working together and helping each other make things be better is a good model.”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” opens in theaters nationwide December 17.
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