This is both an explanatory and follow-up article to “Tangled in a web — Spider-man’s tumultuous summer with the Marvel Cinematic Universe” published on Oct. 2.
“He cried on the phone” is what former Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!.” No, he wasn’t serious and made a point to say that “it was clear that [Holland] cared so much.”
Following the initial announcement of a Disney/Sony standoff in mid-August — which would have resulted in the departure of the Spider-man character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Holland kept his composure in public. Privately, he was in turmoil.
Nobody would’ve assumed this until he confessed this to be the case at ACE Comic-Con in Illinois the weekend of Oct. 11.
Jokingly, in response to an inquiry as to whether he would participate in another “Lip Sync Battle” — for which he masterfully performed Rihanna’s 2008 hit single “Umbrella” — he said that while the week leading up to the performance was the most stressful so far, that “maybe the whole Disney/Sony thing when that happened, that was a bit of a stressful week” insinuating that it was more stressful than his lip sync performance.
Holland, along with many MCU fans, was upset by what was happening, and so he did what nobody else could, or would, do — he called Bob Iger.
Following their conversation, Iger contacted both Marvel Studios and Sony and was eventually able to negotiate a deal between the two entities.
The result of both Holland’s initial phone call, and Iger’s calls to both Marvel Studios and Sony, is that Holland’s character gets to remain in the MCU — at least for one more film. The next installment in the “Spider-man: Homecoming” series is to be released in July 2021.
In response to the news on Sept. 27, both Holland and his co-star Zendaya posted on their respective social media accounts. On Instagram, Holland uploaded a scene from the 2013 Martin Scorcese film, “The Wolf of Wallstreet.” In the clip, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character starting with a whisper says “I’m not leaving,” and as he repeats himself gets louder and louder, ultimately culminating in a very excitable “I’m not fucking leaving. The show goes on!”
Zendaya posted an animated GIF of Spider-man dancing on her Twitter account.
So what is the overall future for the webbed hero?
Ruben Fleischer, the director of 2018’s “Venom” — a character known in the Spider-man universe as a villain — disclosed plans for a crossover.
“That’s where [the storyline] it’s all going to lead,” he said.
Making this divergence from the original storyline exceptionally interesting is how older Spider-man fans have come to know the various characters’ backstories.
“We changed the origin of Venom [for 2018’s “Venom”]. In the comics, he evolved from Spider-man but because of the Marvel-Sony thing we weren’t able to do that,” Feisher said. “And so the thing I think it’s building towards, and will be exciting to see, is when they actually do confront each other.”
The President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige had previously hinted at such a crossover during the initial split when he said that “[Spider-Man] also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse, you never know what surprises the future might hold.”
The currently untitled Venom sequel in pre-production — with Tom Hardy continuing his role as the title character. It is scheduled for a 2021 release and will be directed by Andy Serkis, the director of Netflix’s “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle” from 2018. At this time, whether Holland’s Spider-man is to make an appearance is up to speculation.
