PA/Marvel StudiosMany fans were left positively bereft after it was feared Disney would cut Spider-Man’s gossamer strings to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And none more so than Tom Holland himself.
The 23-year-old actor – best known for his portrayal of Spidey – has opened up about his typically heroic part in saving Peter Parker. And, unlike most Marvel rescue missions, it involved pub quizzes, drunken phone conversations and a little bit of weeping.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tom Holland spoke about how ‘devastated’ he had been when he wasn’t allowed to pose for Marvel pics at Disney’s recent D23 expo. However, a fateful phone call with Bob Iger changed everything.
You can watch part of the interview for yourself below:
Explaining the situation, Holland began:
We were at D23, which is the big Disney convention, and the news had come out and I was obviously devastated, I was really upset.
All my Marvel friends were there, and they were taking like Marvel pictures, and I was like [pulls sad face] not allowed to be in them, you know, it was awful!
[…] Yeah, it was not the best day. But anyway, I asked if I could get Bob’s [Iger] email, because I just wanted to say thank you.
I just 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 we can work together in the future’.
So I got his email, I sent him the email, he responded very quickly to me saying, ‘I’d love to jump on the phone with you at some point, when are you free?’ And you don’t give Bob Iger a schedule, you’re like ‘whenever, Bob’.
DisneyHolland continued:
So like two, three days go by and then my family and I went to the pub quiz in our local town, […] and I’m like three pints in right, haven’t eaten much, and I get a phone call from an unknown number, and I have a feeling, I’m like, ‘I think this is Bob Iger, but I’m drunk’.
So anyway, my dad’s just like, ‘just take the call, you’ll be fine!’ so I answer the call and I’m like, ‘hey Bob, actually I’m really glad you’ve called! What’s the question? When did Snow White come out? 1944? 1944, write that down!’
I didn’t do that! But I basically just said thank you for the opportunity and he said there’s a world in where we can make this work, and then there was a bunch of phone calls back and forth from Tom Rothman, really instrumental in the process.
And it was really interesting for me to have these two studio heads be like, ‘what do you think?’ I don’t know I’m an actor!
Jimmy Kimmel LiveKimmel then went on to ask whether – as claimed by Iger – Holland ended up crying with emotion during the phone call.
To this, Holland replied:
I weeped. No I didn’t weep! I did yeah. I was really emotional, because I felt like it was all coming to an end.
Don’t you worry Tom, there was a fair few tears amongst your fanbase during this dark period. Thank God Spidey is now firmly back in his MCU web, with a new film reportedly spinning into cinemas in 2021.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.