Captain Marvel Star Ben Mendelsohn Goes on NSFW Rant About Spider-Man Leaving the MCU

Captain Marvel star Ben Mendelsohn, who reprised his role as Skrull Talos in Spider-Man: Far From [...]

Captain Marvel star Ben Mendelsohn, who reprised his role as Skrull Talos in Spider-Man: Far From Home, says the wall-crawler is one of Marvel's "absolute motherf—ing pornstars" and no other Marvel superhero is "as important as Spider-Man." A pact between Disney-owned Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures, who hold the movie rights to the character, famously fell through earlier in the year, leaving Tom Holland's Spider-Man facing an uncertain future: if Disney and Sony failed to reach a new deal, Spider-Man 3 would have moved forward separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and without the involvement of franchise architect and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

"I think what happens in these things is, most of the time, cooler heads prevail. Sometimes we end up in a situation which feels like it's going to be the lead up to World War I," Mendelsohn told Metro.co.uk when promoting new Netflix movie The King. "But s— man. You can't lose Spider-Man from the Marvel universe. He's one of their absolute motherf—ing pornstars."

In fact, "I could name 30 [superheroes] that you could quite comfortably lose before you start thinking about losing Spider-Man," Mendelsohn said, adding, "I cannot think of a single character who's more important to Marvel than Spider-Man. You've got Hulk, you've got Thor… none of them are as important as Spider-Man. None of them."

Had Spider-Man been pulled from the MCU, "It would have been a disaster."

Such disaster was averted in part through the intervention of Holland, who lobbied Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sony film chairman Tom Rothman to reach a new deal allowing Spider-Man to remain in the MCU, where he was knighted an Avenger and served as the protégé of rockstar superhero Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr).

Iger confirmed Holland helped orchestrate the new deal during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying "it was clear that he cared so much. And actually, we care about him."

"I felt for him, and it was clear that the fans wanted this to happen. So after I got off the phone with him, I made a couple of phone calls to our team at Disney Studios, and then I decided to call the head of Sony, and I said 'We have to figure out a way to get this done, for Tom and for the fans.' And we did," Iger said. "That's how it happened... Sometimes, when companies are negotiating with each other, they kinda forget that there are other folks out there."

Disney will co-finance the next Spider-Man, contributing 25% of its budget as part of a deal guaranteeing Disney 25% of net gross profit. This new contract also allows Spider-Man to appear in another MCU-set movie that has yet to be revealed.

Spider-Man 3 opens July 16, 2021.

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