Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has a very weird place in the Marvel universe, in that he’s a character that’s being loaned out to Marvel by Sony Pictures—who owns the rights to Spider-Man and all the characters associated with him.
Though Spider-Man gets to appear in his own movies and make cameos in team-up films like Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, it looks like he could be showing up a bit more down the line—that is, if this rumor turns out to be true.
More Spider-Man in the MCU Thanks to New Sony and Marvel Studios Deal
According to insider Daniel RPK (via @HollywoodHandle), Sony and Marvel are currently working on a new deal that would ‘allow Spider-Man to appear in other MCU projects’. No furtherdetails have been revealed, but with Holland’s Spider-Man currently taking a break after No Way Home, it would make sense for Marvel and Sony to trey and renegotiate the character with a new trilogy incoming.
At best, Holland’s Spider-Man only appears in the MCU in team-up movies and his own solo films. Sure he can show up for Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame, but he’s barely expected to appear in small roles for a Doctor Strange movie perhaps, or a series like Daredevil.
Holland’s Career Slump
Though Holland does try to get roles outside of Spider-Man, a lot of fans have noticed that his work outside of Marvel hasn’t really been hitting at the same level as young actors like Timothee Chalamet or Zendaya.
The non-Marvel movies that he worked on like Chaos Walking and Cherry didn’t manage to wow critics, and even the Uncharted film wasn’t really considered that memorable. Personally, I still think Holland is a solid actor, and his work on The Devil All the Time was actually pretty great.
His latest project is a drama series called The Crowded Room with co-stars Amanda Seyfried, Sasha Lane, and Will Chase.
Maybe More Spider-Man is a Good Thing?
With Holland recently taking a break from huge films, his return as Spider-Man is going to be a huge deal for fans—especially since Spider-Man is no doubt one of the most popular (if not the most popular) Marvel characters to audiences right now.
Maybe his cameos in other properties won’t even need Holland to appear as himself. It’s possible they can just do a Mandalorian and have a body double play the part with Holland providing the voice later.
With there also being an issue of Spider-Man not appearing in any of the spinoff franchises like Venom, maybe this new deal with Marvel will finally allow Holland to be able to play around with Spider-Man’s actual villains as compared to having to be limited to the few SM characters that Sony wants to loan out to Marvel Studios.
With the Venom trilogy closing this year, it’s kind of odd that fans never got to see Tom Hardy’s Venom clash with Holland’s Spidey—especially since their clash was teased in the post-credits for Let There Be Carnage.
No specific release date has been announced for Holland’s next Spider-Man movie, but fans are hoping that he swings back into theaters sometime around 2026—at least sometime before Marvel Studios releases Avengers: Secret Wars.