It has been almost a month since Marvel fans received the shocking news that Spider-Man would not be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what a long month that has been. After fans went through all five stages of grief and finally settled on acceptance, Disney and Sony backtracked and announced that one final Spidey film will be made within the MCU.
The deal in question would see Disney put forward 25% of the budget for a third Spider-Man film in return for 25% of the profits. In addition to this, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will come back for one more MCU group endeavour. Whilst this allows closure for this iteration of Spider-Man and a graceful exit from the universe, it also denies Sony the chance to explore another live-action version of this beloved hero. Some might suggest that is a good thing since none of us wants to watch Uncle Ben die again or suffer through the mess that was The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Undeniably, Tom Holland has fast become one of the best-loved versions of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. However, it would be ignorant to pretend that Sony didn’t produce one of the greatest comic book films of recent years – Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018). The long-shot won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and boasts an impressive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, outranking the behemoth that is Endgame (2019) which sits at 96%. In the wake of Holland’s removal from the MCU, many fans were looking to the Spiderverse to provide a new home for him. This could still be a possibility for post-MCU Holland, however, it looks like this will be at least a few years away now.
Tom Holland himself seemed incredibly pleased with the news, posting on his Instagram a clip from The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) in which DiCaprio can be seen shouting ‘I’m not leaving’ simply captioned with the smirking emoji.
I, for one, am excited to see this next film in the Homecoming series. After the cliff-hanger at the end of Far From Home (2019), Holland’s Spider-Man deserves a proper send-off and closure on his story-line. With all the corporate tension resolved, at least publicly, hopefully, the filmmakers can focus on producing a film that satisfies fans after this month-long roller-coaster.
Words by Danni Scott