This past week, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were hit with the bomb that Disney and Sony Pictures might not be able to finalize a new deal to keep sharing the movie rights to Spider-Man. That means we may not see Spidey swinging around with The Avengers anymore, and that means Peter Parker would be playing in a much different sandbox in the creative control of Sony Pictures instead of Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios. In short, it stinks, and now two of the key figures involved have responded.

Tom Holland has played the new Spider-Man through two solo wallcrawler movies, as well as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Kevin Feige produced all of those movies. Now the two have spoken out for the first time about the Spider-Man deal debacle that has engulfed entertainment news all week. Find out what they had to say below.

Entertainment Weekly caught up with Tom Holland after he made an appearance during the Pixar Animation section of the movies presentation at The D23 Expo today. Holland voices one of the main characters in Pixar’s new movie Onward alongside fellow MCU star Chris Pratt of Guardians of the Galaxy, but conversation inevitably turned to Spider-Man, and here’s what the actor had to say about the matter:

“Basically, we’ve made five great movies. It’s been five amazing years. I’ve had the time of my life. Who knows what the future holds? But all I know is that I’m going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life. It’s going to be so fun, however we choose to do it. The future for Spider-Man will be different, but it will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler.”

That sounds very diplomatic for someone who is probably extremely disappointed that he won’t be able to play around in the biggest cinematic universe that Hollywood has ever seen. And it sounds like someone who’s trying to hold back frustration with the executives at Sony Pictures (and possibly Disney) for making this such a difficult time for him as an actor. That being said, Holland probably isn’t privy to every single piece of negotiating going on behind the scenes, so maybe he’s just trying to wade this thing out without adding anymore gas to the fire.

Meanwhile, Kevin Feige was equally as humble about the situation, likely holding out hope that some kind of deal could still come to fruition. The Marvel Studios boss and franchise producer said:

“I’m feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy. We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”

It’s true that the mere prospect of Spider-Man being in the MCU to begin with was once thought of as a pipe dream. The news of the deal back before Captain America: Civil War was released felt like a miracle in the making, and the fact that we got to see Spider-Man sling his web around the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the rest of the MCU roster will always be something that fans treasure, even if it doesn’t continue from here on out.

For what it’s worth, Holland wanted fans to hear at least some semblance of peace when, during the Onward presentation, he said, “Hey everyone, it’s been a crazy week, but I want you all to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I love you 3000.”

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