Despite a potential divorce between Sony and Disney threatening to strip Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man of all ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Holland hinted a Spider-Man: Far From Home scene tied to Robert Downey Jr’s late Iron Man proves “pivotal” for its sequel.
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“I think the best work I’ve ever done in any film is the scene with [Jon] Favreau on the plane, and that’s such a pivotal moment for the three films that we’re making — well, two films we’ve made, one film we’re making,” Holland said during an appearance at Keystone Comic Con in Philadelphia over the weekend. “It’s… I don’t really know how to describe it without giving stuff away. I’m really trying hard here [laughs].”
The scene finds Holland’s Peter Parker picked up by Favreau’s Happy Hogan, Stark’s longtime friend and former bodyguard, after being defeated by master of illusions Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). A vulnerable Peter admits he doesn’t have it in him to be the world’s next Iron Man, but Happy tells him Stark wouldn’t have made the sacrifice play against Thanos (Josh Brolin) “if he didn’t know that you were going to be here after he was gone.”
Director Jon Watts previously told The Los Angeles Times the scene in the jet marked “the cathartic moment for Peter,” who is inspired by the pep-talk to use Stark technology to craft a Spider-Man suit of his own making.
“This whole story is about him running away from how he feels and from this responsibility and basically lying to himself about his emotions,” Watts said. “So I knew the whole movie was sort of building up to that moment where he finally just breaks down and tells Happy the truth about how he feels and all of his insecurity.”
For producer Kevin Feige, Far From Home was setting up a third Spider-Man where Peter was out from under the shadow of his late mentor and the Avengers.
“It’ll be fun to see Spidey back in his element, out of the shadow of Tony, out of the shadow of the other Avengers, as his own man now, as his own hero,” Feige said in a July interview of early plans for the Far From Home followup. “And yet now facing his own challenges that aren’t coming from Avengers fighting, like [Captain America: Civil War], or aliens coming, like [Avengers: Infinity War] or [Avengers: Endgame]. It’s all Peter focused and Peter based.”
Convention attendees were reportedly directed not to ask Holland about the much publicized Sony-Disney split; according to one attendee, the reason given was that such questions “might mess up any contract discussions that will be announced within the next few days,” a hint at a renewed deal. If a new deal isn’t reached, Sony would have to abandon Spider-Man’s ties to Iron Man and the Avengers, and characters like Happy or Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) would be prohibited from appearing as those characters are Disney-owned.
An earlier report from Deadline revealed Sony has already started work on the untitled Spider-Man 3, again with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far From Home co-writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.
Though Holland kept details quiet, the star did say the creative team has already pitched a very different Spider-Man 3 and that the team has “really exciting” ideas “for how we can expand the Spider-Man world and bring new characters into it, and crossover with other people.”
