Tom Holland’s Drunk, Crying Phone Call With Disney CEO Saved Spider-Man From MCU Exit

Zack Sharf

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Tom Holland’s Spider-Man got close to leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the summer when word got out that Disney and Sony were failing to come to terms on a new agreement to share the character. Holland proved to be an instrumental figure in bringing the two studios together to find common ground. During the actor’s December 4 appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Holland told his side of the Disney-Sony split drama. The story memorably includes a drunken phone call with Disney CEO Bob Iger that left Holland in tears.

“We were at D23 and the news came out and I was obviously devastated,” Holland remembered. “It was awful. I asked if I could get Bob Iger’s email because I just wanted to say, ‘Thank you, this has been an amazing five years of my life. Thank you for changing my life in the best way and I hope that we can work together in the future.’ I got his email and I sent him the email and he responded very quickly saying he’d want to jump on the phone and asked when I was free.”

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Holland continued, “So, two, three days go by and then my family and I went to the pub quiz in our local town. We’re doing a quiz and I’m three pints in, haven’t eaten much, and I get a phone call from an unknown number and I have a feeling. I’m like, ‘I think this is Bob Iger but I’m drunk.’”

A drunken Holland picked up the phone and “wept” to Iger over the possibility of his Spider-Man character being removed from the MCU because of the studios’ disagreement. “I was really emotional because I felt like it was all coming to an end,” Holland said.

Disney and Sony announced September 27 it had finally come to an agreement to share the character for a third MCU movie following “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” The latter was released this summer and grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The next “Spider-Man” has already been set for a theatrical release on July 16, 2021. Watch Holland’s full “Kimmel” appearance in the video below.

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