Though it started to look like Spider-Man would be going back to Sony after their partnership with Disney came to a crashing end, a surprising deal was able to save the webslinger from the corporate snap that would have dusted the character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though both parties agreed on new terms, it was who brought them together that made it all happen. According to new reports, it was Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home star Tom Holland‘s last-minute heroics that were able to save Spidey from being lost to the MCU. More on the report below.

THR reveals that after Holland made his appearance to promote Disney-Pixar’s Onward at the D23 Expo, he made a last-minute appeal to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sony CEO Tom Rothman to reach a consensus that would allow Marvel to produce one more Spider-Man film under the Disney banner, and for the character to appear in at least one more Marvel film. According to the report, the reason that Holland was able to help make this happen was because he is also attached to star in Sony’s long-in-development adaptation of the Uncharted video game series.

Behind the scenes, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will be acting as a producer on the standalone film once more. Meanwhile, the deal involves Disney providing 25% of the budget while receiving a 25% of the net gross. It’s not exactly the 50-50 split on financing that they were asking for, but at least it allows Spider-Man to play in the MCU sandbox for at least two more films. Disney also has a higher stake in the new movie. For the first two Spider-Man co-productions, Disney reportedly received less than 5% of the gross.

Originally, the Disney deal asked for an even 50-50 co-financing deal. Considering how much both Spider-Man films have made since he’s become a part of the MCU, it seemed like a reasonable request. However, Sony was unwilling to budge, and wanted to stick with the original deal. In January, a more modest 25-25 proposal was put on the table. However, Sony didn’t come back to the table for six months, and as a result, Alan Horn abruptly broke off negotiations.

While it was a strange move on Sony’s part, the report says that Venom made the studio feel confident that they no longer needed their rival to help them with their Spider-Man films. Though Venom was largely panned by critics, it still made a very surprising $856 million, which was more than enough for them to greenlight a sequel. On the flip side, Disney was also feeling confident because of Avengers: Endgame‘s record-breaking run at the box office.

Ultimately, it was Holland who was able to bring the two parties together after showing outpouring of fan support.

One has to appreciate what Holland did in order to keep the fans happy. This only shows how much he understands that a character’s success is due in no small part to his ability to interact with the MCU characters. Something of which fans had been hoping to see ever since the MCU started to expand exponentially, while Spidey was stuck in the confines of Sony. Now that Spider-Man is back again, one has to hope that the two studios can reach another deal to continue this relationship. We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Source: THR]