Tom Holland Is Planning An Exit Strategy From The MCU

By TeeJay Small
| Published 1 hour ago

Now that Marvel is shifting full force into the Avengers: Doomsday era, each member of the long-running franchise is preparing to enter a new chapter for their respective characters. Endgame saw major structural changes in the cinematic universe, with the loss of flagship characters like Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff, opening up leading positions for a younger generation of heroes. Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man was expected to take a leading role among the Avengers in future installments, but the actor is already planning an exit from the franchise, per a write-up in Variety.

During a recent interview, Tom Holland described an interest in passing the torch to a younger hero, and closing the book on his iteration of the friendly neighborhood web-head. Specifically, he articulated “whoever’s next, whether that is a Miles Morales or a Spider-Gwen or a Spider-Woman or something like that, I would love to be a part of setting up the next chapter.” He then added that he’d like to “do what Downey did for me, then I would be so content swinging off into the sunset.”

No Sure Timeline Yet

For those who don’t recall, Holland’s Spider-Man was sort of back-doored into the MCU by Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, who sought the web-slinger’s assistance during the events of Captain America: Civil War. After the success of that film, fans received three standalone Spider-Man movies with Holland at the helm, though Tony Stark loomed large over each outing. Holland’s first main-line Marvel film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, featured RDJ in a very prominent role, guiding Spidey through the dos and don’ts of local crime fighting and work-life balance.

If we’re to take Tom Holland at his word, it sounds like he only plans to stick around for a few more movies before making a graceful exit in favor of a new Spider-themed hero. This would be a bit surprising, since he hasn’t really had the chance to lead the Avengers into battle like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have so many times before. His next main-line outing Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently on pace to premiere in July, and the character is expected to play a major role in Avengers: Doomsday this December, but we don’t know much more about Marvel’s plans for Holland after that.

Spidey Still Makes Bank

Even if Tom Holland wants out, it’s tough to imagine Disney letting him off the hook. His MCU films tend to pull in massive box office revenue, even when compared to other flagship Marvel outings. Homecoming touts a box office return of over $880 million, while the follow-ups Far From Home and No Way Home grossed $1.1 billion and $1.9 billion respectively. That makes No Way Home the eighth highest grossing film of all time, trailing just barely behind Avengers: Infinity War.

Given Disney’s ravenous propensity to squeeze every last drop of profitability out of their IP, it feels unlikely that they’d be content to let their cash cow swing into the sunset never to return. Even Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans are returning for Doomsday, so there’s little hope of anybody getting a clean exit here. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds, though it seems much more likely that, to borrow a phrase from Deadpool, “they’re gonna make him do this till he’s 90.”