Tom Holland’s pivotal role in bringing Spider-Man back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the initial end of the working agreement between Marvel and Sony has solidified the actor’s reputation as an all-round good guy in the eyes of fans. Although he was set to keep playing the character outside of the MCU, the 23 year-old became heavily involved in the process of restarting negotiations between the two parties due to both his obvious love for the web-slinger and his strong relationships with the likes of Kevin Feige, outgoing Disney CEO Bob Iger and many of his co-stars.
Mirroring the bond established in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Holland and Robert Downey Jr. have become close friends off-screen, with the latter acting as the young star’s mentor in offering advice on how to navigate through the tricky business of Hollywood, with the two even FaceTiming regularly and going hiking during the height of the Sony/Marvel standoff.
Even though Iron Man met his demise at the end of Avengers: Endgame, there’ve been constant rumors linking RDJ with an eventual return to the fold somewhere down the line, and he’s already set to make a cameo in the upcoming Black Widow. It was claimed that his astronomical financial demands were proving to be a stumbling block in convincing him to come back, but We Got This Covered has now heard that his friendship with Tom Holland could be used as a bargaining chip.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us that a She-Hulk show was coming to Disney Plus and that Taskmaster would be the main villain in Black Widow – Downey Jr. is eager to work with his protege again and Marvel are looking at ways to team them up once more. Of course, the two recently co-starred in Dolittle, but that was a voice role for Holland and the movie itself was terrible and bombed spectacularly at the box office.
And though it isn’t a necessity, our sources say that finding the right MCU project for them to work on together would go a long way to getting Downey Jr. to make a comeback as Stark. That being said, there are other factors at play here, too, like the aforementioned fact that the actor is also demanding a ridiculous amount of money to return. But again, if Marvel can line something up for him that’d include Holland, they may just be able to lure him back.