Superhero movie fans were gutted during the week to hear that Marvel and Sony had come to loggerheads over Spider-Man. The latter has long owned the comic book fave; starting with Captain America: Civil War, they started loaning him out to the latter, letting mix in with the MCU. That deal ended this week, but that didn’t stop Peter Parker’s current on-screen portrayer, Tom Holland, from showing up at the D23 Expo — despite it being a to-do thrown by Marvel owner Disney.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, the young English actor was there for presentation devoted to Onward, one of Pixar’s forthcoming films, and one of two due in 2020 that aren’t sequels but original concepts. Holland knew it was a touch awkward for him to be there so soon after the Sony-Marvel split, and when he and Onward co-star Chris Pratt hit the stage, he leaned into it.
“It’s been a crazy week,” Holland told the crowd, “but I want you to know I am grateful from the bottom of my heart and I love you 3,000.” He even noted that he and Pratt, aka Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Star-Lord, were sharing a screen very recently, in Avengers: Endgame. “Last time we here, we were space buddies fighting on Titan. Now we’re elf buddies, fighting in L.A.”
Holland was referring to Onward, in which the two play suburbanized elf brothers who embark on a quest to find the last remaining bit of magic in a depressingly developed world much like our own.
Meanwhile, Holland’s Spidey future is up in the air. Sony claimed the divorce happened because they wanted to relinquish control over their cash cow character, saying they no longer needed the guiding hand of Marvel Entertainment’s Kevin Feige. It’s not clear what will happen next, or if the two corporate behemoths will make up or what. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Far From Home is recently became Sony’s biggest ever global money-maker.
(Via THR)