Tom Holland says the cast and crew of Spider-Man: No Way Home is “pestering” Marvel Studios for a special screening of Black Widow, the first film in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As filming winds down on the Spider-Man threequel swinging into theaters in December — bringing an end to Holland’s six-movie Spider-Man deal he hopes to renew for Homecoming 4 and beyond — the actor is attempting to use his Spidey status to convince Disney-owned Marvel to preview Black Widow, the thrice-dated spy thriller led by his three-time MCU co-star Scarlett Johansson in the character’s first standalone movie:
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“We’ve been pestering Marvel for weeks to see if they’ll set up a screening for Black Widow for us, but they haven’t,” Holland told Screen Rant ahead of his new movie Cherry. “So if you’re watching, Marvel, sort it out, because we want to watch it (laughs).”
2020 became the first year without a Marvel Studios movie since 2009 when Black Widow moved from November to its current slot on May 7, 2021, one year after its original May 2020 release date. If Black Widow stays on May 7, it will open 675 days after the last MCU movie — 2019’s Avengers: Endgame followup Spider-Man: Far From Home — which is the largest wait between movies since the 693-day gap that separated 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2010’s Iron Man 2.
“I mean, confidence is meaningless in today’s world because nobody knows anything. Hope springs eternal,” Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com in January when asked if the studio believes it can keep Black Widow on May 7. “A year delay you hope would be enough, there’s a vaccine out there now. We’ll see. I certainly hope so. I want to be back in the theater with people.”
In February, Variety reported Feige opposed a hybrid release for Black Widow via Premier Access on Disney+ — a PVOD model used for Disney’s live-action Mulan in September and the animated Raya and the Last Dragon, out in theaters and on streaming starting Friday — and insiders have maintained Black Widow will not have a simultaneous release in theaters and on digital.
After Black Widow, currently set to open May 7 only in theaters, Marvel Studios has set Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for July 9 and the Chloé Zhao-directed Eternals for November 5. Sony Pictures will release Marvel Studios co-production Spider-Man: No Way Home only in theaters on December 17.
