Tom Holland is a superhero on the big screen and in real-life. Our beloved Spider-Man admitted in a new interview that he was a bit drunk when he got the call from Disney CEO Bob Iger that helped keep Spider-Man in the MCU.
Just when you thought Tom Holland couldn’t get any more adorable. The Marvel star revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! all the details about what went down to keep Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom tried to be humble at first and say that he wasn’t the one to save Spider-Man, but he totally saved Spider-Man. “We were at D23, which is the big Disney convention, and the news had come out and I was obviously devastated,” the 23-year-old explained to Jimmy Kimmel. “I was really upset. All my Marvel friends were there and they were taking like Marvel pictures and I was like [makes sad face] not allowed to be in them. It was awful.”
Tom revealed that he asked if he could get Disney CEO Bob Iger’s email to say thank you. “I just wanted to say, ‘This has been an amazing 5 years of my life,” Tom continued. “‘Thank you for changing my life in the best way and I hope we can work together in the future.’” Tom sent the email and Bob replied quickly to say that he wanted to hop on the phone. Tom said that a few days went by and he was at the pub with his family when Bob called. “I’m like 3 pints in, right? Haven’t eaten much and I get a phone call from an unknown number. I have a feeling. I think this is Bob Iger. But I’m drunk.” Tom’s dad pushed him to take the call and he did.
The actor said that he thanked Bob for the opportunity to play Spider-Man and Bob responded with, “There is a world where we can make this work.” There were several additional phone calls back and forth between executives. “It was really interesting for me to have these two like studio heads like, ‘What do you think?’” Jimmy brought up that Bob said Tom cried on the phone. “I weeped,” Tom said. “No, I didn’t weep… I did, yeah.” He added, “I was really emotional because I felt like it was all coming to an end.” Regardless of what happened, Tom said the future of Spider-Man was still “very bright but it would have been a shame to take him out of the MCU. It’s where he belongs. We’ve built such a strong character in that world and it would have been a shame to lose that, but I’m just really glad we managed to work it out.”
Over the summer, fans were shocked when it was announced that Disney and Sony couldn’t come to an agreement about the future of Spider-Man in the MCU. Initially, this meant that the rights to the character reverted to just Sony and Tom wouldn’t appear in any more Marvel movies. After major backlash and Tom speaking out, the studios came to an agreement. Marvel and Sony will team up for a third Spider-Man film with Tom that will be released in 2021. Spider-Man will also appear in another future MCU film. Without Tom, this deal wouldn’t have been possible. He is a blessing to us all.