Spider-Man: Far From Home is already a massive box office success, taking more than $300 million in its first days of release. Fans have very clearly become attached to Tom Holland in the role of Peter Parker, but the young star could soon find himself in an interesting spot, as his six-film contract will run out after his next solo movie.
Back in 2016, Holland told The Hollywood Reporter that he had signed on to play the web-slinging superhero in three stand-alone movies, as well as three other appearances in Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Counting Captain America: Civil War, the two most recent Avengers films and his two Spider-Man outings, that puts the current total at five.
This leaves just one solo Spider-Man to go. Marvel would doubtless be happy to sign him for as long as possible, since they appear to be positioning him as the new Iron Man and a cornerstone of their universe. A potential complication could arise, however, given that Sony still owns the rights to Spider-Man, so the future of the character will depend on their ongoing relationship with Marvel.
Back in 2015, Sony announced a deal with Marvel and Disney, allowing them to essentially share control of the character. Sony gets to distribute and have the final creative word on films where Spidey is the lead, while Marvel and Disney have control over films where he appears as part of a larger team of heroes. It’s an arrangement that has worked well so far, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t continue.
Whatever happens, you can count on seeing Tom Holland slinging webs at least once more in a Spider-Man film. Marvel head Kevin Feige has said that each of the current movies will chronicle one year of Peter Parker’s high school life, so the third will likely focus on his senior year and graduation. After that – who knows?
Given the popularity of the character, it’s likely that Sony would face a big backlash from fans if they tried to hold him to ransom and blocked him from appearing in future MCU movies, or even possibly as part of a new cinematic Avengers line-up. At this point, we’ll just have to hold tight and hope that the studios are able to work some kind of new deal out.
