LOS ANGELES: Bob Iger, Disney Chairman and CEO, has confirmed that actor Tom Holland reached out to him in a desperate bid to keep Spider-Man from leaving Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Appearing at Jimmy Kimmel, the Disney honcho revealed that Holland asked the company's executives after the D23 expo in August that he wants to speak to him.
"After D23, Tom reach out to folks who worked for me and said, could I please have Bob's email address or phone number.'
"Of course, I'm very protected so they were very careful and I said, sure, have him contact me.' And he did, we spoke and he basically made a... he cried on the phone," Iger said.
He was promoting his book "The Ride of a Lifetime" on the show.
After talking to Holland, who portrays the fan-favourite character in the MCU, Iger said he approached his counterpart at Sony.
"I felt for him and it was clear that the fans wanted all this to happen. So, after I got off the phone with him I made a couple of phone calls to our team at Disney Studios and then I decided to call the head of Sony."
And I said, 'We got to figure out a way to get this done, for Tom and for the fans. And we did," he said.
Holland's perseverance paid off and in a shocker, on September 27, the two companies announced that a deal was struck to bring out a third Spider-Man film together, and for the character to appear in at least one additional Disney-Marvel film.