Tom Holland Reveals How He Helped With Marvel And Sony's Spider-Man Deal
When Spider-Man officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2016's "Captain America: Civil War," fans were overjoyed. Though we had already seen plenty of iterations of the iconic web-slinger on the big screen, he had yet to join the biggest superhero franchise of all time. The Sony Group has owned the film rights to Spider-Man since 1999, when a then-financially-struggling Marvel inked a deal with the massive media company, leaving Marvel with just five percent of film revenue (via USA Today).
When Disney purchased Marvel Studios in 2009, Sony regained 100 percent of all Spider-Man film revenue, in exchange for giving Disney complete control of merchandising of the character. Of course, movies are what lead to profitable merchandising, and it was only a matter of time before Disney wanted Spidey to be part of the Avengers.
Despite the incredibly positive fan reaction to Tom Holland's turn as Peter Parker, his future in the MCU was on shaky ground after the release of "Spider-Man: Far From Home." In 2019, however, Sony and Disney were able to strike a deal to keep all their respective shareholders happy, and a third stand-alone Spider-Man film in the MCU was green-lit.
While we imagine this deal involved lots of suits in boardrooms, terse e-mails from attorneys, and Kevin Feige angrily removing his signature baseball cap, it turns out Spidey himself had a role to play in smoothing over negotiations.
Tom Holland's passion for Spider-Man helped with the deal
In Empire's recent "Spider-Man: No Way Home" themed issue, Tom Holland revealed how he helped with the crucial Marvel and Sony deal. He may not have been the one drafting legal documents, but as the closest thing to a real Peter Parker we have, his input definitely carried some weight.
"From a business point of view, I wasn't instrumental at all. People seem to think I suddenly went to law school and singlehandedly struck up a deal between Sony and Disney," Holland shared with Empire (via The Direct). "Essentially, all I did was show both parties how passionate I was about this character. I basically said, 'Look, if there's a world where you can fix this, it will be so much better for the character, and for me, and for the fans. So if you can fix it, fix it.'" And fix it they did.
We're thrilled we'll see Holland suit up as the definitive MCU Spider-Man again in "No Way Home." While the actor has called the film the conclusion of his Spider-Man trilogy, as reported by EW, it's not the definitive end of Peter Parker in the MCU. "I think if we were lucky enough to dive into these characters again, you'd be seeing a very different version," he said.
With the Spider-verse ever-expanding (and that exciting "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" post-credits scene), anything is possible for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.