Tom Holland on Sony-Disney impasse: Spider-Man will be ‘different but equally as awesome and amazing’

MANILA, Philippines – Even as fans continue to hold on to the hope that everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is staying in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, actor Tom Holland seems to have accepted a future away from the shared cinematic universe. 

“It’s been five amazing years. I’ve had the time of my life. Who knows what the future holds? But all I know is that I’m going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life. It’s going to be so fun, however we choose to do it. The future for Spider-Man will be different, but it will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler,” said Holland backstage at Disney’s D23, its bi-annual expo where big announcements are made for majority of its major franchises. The expo began on August 23, Friday, in the US. 

Holland first played Spider-Man in Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War in 2016. He has since starred in two Spider-Man movies and two Avengers movies. But days before D23, news broke that talks between Disney and Sony, which has the film rights to Spider-Man, broke down.

The two companies had inked a partnership over the Spider-Man franchise; Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige would be producer of the Spider-Man solo films and Holland would appear in the crossover MCU films. 

Following Spider-Man: Far From Home, Disney had reportedly asked for a change of terms – it would co-finance future solo Spider-Man films. Sony had previously financed the movies by itself. Until a deal is reached, Holland’s Spider-Man may not appear in any future movies in the MCU or the shared cinematic universe between Marvel Studios’ film characters. 

“We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that,” Feige had told EW over the weekend. – Rappler.com