This summer, Tom Holland suites back up in the MCU as New York’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man for the first time in a few years. With the greatly-anticipated trailer of Spider-Man: Brand New Day releasing earlier this month, this is a good time like no other to have a rundown looking back at Spider-Man’s time in the MCU during the past 10 years.
Note: This will not include Spidey’s appearance in What If…? Season 1 Episode 5, partly due to Tom Holland not voicing Peter/Spidey there.
Captain America: Civil War
First off, Peter Parker’s actual first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in 2010’s Iron Man 2 during a battle at Stark Expo where a kid wearing an Iron Man mask was saved by the real Iron Man. But that was more of a retroactive retcon of sorts, since Peter Parker/Spider-Man was not yet introduced to the MCU at the time and that the Iron Man kid was played by Jon Favreau’s son, Max. At first, this was a fan theory, but was later confirmed by Jon Watts (via Entertainment Weekly) shortly before Spider-Man: Homecoming’s release (more on this in a moment).
As for Tom Holland’s first official MCU debut as Spider-Man, that goes to Captain America: Civil War, released in 2016. Just as the Sokovia Accords was splitting The Avengers apart between team Iron Man and Team Captain America (one side favored Government oversight, the other prefers independence) both sides saw newcomers, particularly Peter Parker being recruited by Tony Stark alongside The Black Panther. Though Spidey showed early promise in the German airport battle, he was still bested by Steve Rogers and was sent home after that battle.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
2017 saw Spidey’s first solo film in the MCU, diving into Peter’s struggle to balance regular high schooler life in NYC with being a local/up-and-comer superhero life. Even with unintentionally exposing his superhero alter ego to his best friend Ned Leeds, Peter soon finds himself dealing with a local threat borne from the aftermath of the 2012 Battle of New York as featured in Marvel’s The Avengers. But Peter should not forget about juggling this hero dilemma while pursuing a potential romantic interest in Liz Allan. And not to forget, Aunt May unexpectedly discovers what her nephew’s superhero identity is.
Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame
2018 marked the release of one of the year’s most anticipated films with Avengers: Infinity War. With the Earth (and the universe) facing its greatest threat yet, Peter has his latest chance to prove himself a valuable new member of the Avengers as the heroes, though separately, fight the evil forces of Thanos as he aims to fulfil his years-long goal of decimating half of the universe’s living population by acquiring the Infinity Stones. While Spidey meets up with Iron Man and they both in turn meet the Guardians of the Galaxy and team up with Doctor Strange, the scattered heroes still end up failing to stop Thanos. The Mad Titan decimated half the universe with the snap of his fingers, with Spider-Man among the victims falling to Thanos’s madness.
Though, fear not, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame assured that this was not the real end of the web-crawler. After the surviving members of the Avengers and the Guardians team up to undo Thanos’ snap, Spider-Man returned after the five-year gap (in-universe) and aided in defeating Thanos for good, though it came with Iron Man’s sacrifice.
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Summer 2019 marked the release of Spider-Man’s MCU sequel movie. With Tony Stark’s sacrifice as seen in Endgame, the post-Endgame world looks to Spidey to take Tony’s place as the next Iron Man… but does Peter deem himself worthy of filling in Iron Man’s shoes? after all, Peter still has a personal life to juggle, including yet a new love interest: Michelle Jones, best known as MJ. After Peter deals with a multiversal threat that isn’t what it (or he) claims to be, Peter isn’t out of the woodworks yet, as Far From Home’s post-credit scene revealed that Spider-Man’s secret identity as Peter Parker was exposed by the film’s villain.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
For Christmas 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home ended the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, following up on Peter Parker’s life with the world now knowing he and Spider-Man are one in the same. Peter Parker would team up again with Doctor Strange in attempts to undue Spidey’s secret identity being exposed. But after such a spell went out of control, Peter unleashes faces new enemies and friends from across the multiverse (particularly from two nostalgic pre-MCU Spider-Man movie universes).
At the end, Peter does unleash the spell from Doctor Strange, but at the cost of his closest friends being included by the spell’s effect to make the world forget about who Peter Parker is.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
The MCU Spider-Man trilogy may be done, but just like Captain America and Thor, Spidey still gets a 4th MCU solo film. From what audiences can get at from the movie’s first official trailer, Peter continues his friendly neighborhood superhero role while the world and his closest friends forget who he is and their past adventures with him. All the while, Peter’s body is going through a new spider-related mutation, and he has to deal with that while encountering newcomers popping in the Big Apple.
Related news has the Spider-Man: Brand New Day official trailer breaking records, attracting 1 billion views within 24 hours after upload (via Variety). Filming for the movie wrapped up in December, featuring Glasgow, Scotland standing in for NYC (according to People). Additionally, fans have been buzzing with speculation over one particular scene in the trailer that possibly involves edited out characters around Spidey as him and a group of Ninjas lunge at each other.
What’s Next?
Info on upcoming Spider-Man appearances in the MCU is somewhat limited at the moment. According to the BBC, Avengers: Doomsday is the next major MCU release after Brand New Day, and Tom Holland is absent from the movie’s cast. Thus, a Spider-Man appearance in Doomsday remains unconfirmed at this time. Additionally, Yahoo reported on a Twitter post by MyTimetoShineH, fueling rumors of Tom Holland having a significant role in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also reportedly taking place around the same time as Avengers: Doomsday, further complicating Spidey’s unconfirmed involvement.
In short, fans have to wait until this upcoming July to see if Spider-Man: Brand New day will mark the end of Tom’s Spider-Man in the MCU, or if the wall-crawler will have at least one more installment on the big screen after his fourth solo film.
