Tom Holland had a hand in saving Spidey! Holland admitted during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he was three pints of beer in when he received a call from Disney CEO Bob Iger, subsequently leading to a conversation that helped Sony and Disney/Marvel reacha compromise about Spider-Man‘s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Apparently at D23, Holland asked for Iger’s email after news broke out of the Sony/Disney split, “I just wanted to say thank you, I wanted to say, ‘This has been an amazing five years of my life, thank you for changing my life in the best way, and I hope that we can work together in the future.'” Iger answered back abruptly and asked when Holland was free for a phone call to which Holland replied that anytime worked. Recalling that conversation, Holland said, “you don’t give Bob Iger a schedule, you’re like, ‘Whenever, Bob.'” Iger decided to call weeks later from an unknown number when Holland was enjoying some beer with his family during a local pub’s trivia night.
The phone call that ensued was probably a big help in bringing Disney and Sony back to discussion. Holland described the phone call on Kimmel saying, “I basically just said, ‘Thank you for the opportunity,’ and he said, ‘There is a world in which we can make this work’ and then there were a bunch of phone calls back and forth.” During the interview, Holland admits he was emotional during the phone call and maybe even shed a few tears “because I felt like it was all coming to an end. We had a really good plan with what we were going to do with Sony, the future of Spider-Man was still really bright, but it would’ve been a shame to take him out of the MCU.”
We are so thankful that Holland took that phone call. Marvel wouldn’t be the same without its lovable nerds, Holland and Peter Parker both. Check out Jimmy Kimmel Live’s interview with Holland below.