Tom Holland is keeping his spirits up amid news that Spider-Man was divorcing the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Spider-Man: Far From Home star took the stage on Saturday to promote his upcoming animated film, Pixar's Onward, at D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, but before he left the stage made a point to address the elephant in the room.
"Hey all, it's been a crazy week but I want you to know that I'm grateful from the bottom of my heart," the 23-year-old actor told the crowd, prompting rapturous applause, before ending his brief remarks by quoting Tony Stark's iconic line from Avengers: Endgame. "And I love you 3,000."
Holland's comments comes days after Sony and Disney failed to strike a new deal that would keep the beloved web-slinger in the MCU. On Friday, Holland's Far From Home co-star Jon Favreau told ET at D23 that he is "holding out hope that this isn't the final chapter of that story."
"It's still early days," Favreau said. "As a fan, [I'm] cautiously hopeful that something will come together, because I think all the fans wanna see those characters together... Spidey with the MCU. So, still early days. Things don't always -- what you read isn't always indicative of where things are now, so hopefully I'll find out more while I'm here. But as a fan, I'm... cautiously optimistic, holding out hope that this isn't the final chapter of that story."
On Thursday, Holland and Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr., goofed off in a selfie amid the Sony-Marvel drama. "We did it Mr. Stark!" Holland captioned the silly photos.
Sony Pictures has owned the movie rights to Spider-Man since before Marvel Studios became its own studio. Following The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony and Marvel Studios' parent company, Disney, struck an unprecedented deal that allowed the two companies to share Spidey.
Through the original deal, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige became a lead producer on Spider-Man: Homecoming and its sequel, Far From Home, which starred Holland as the eponymous superhero. The character was also allowed to appear in three MCU crossover films: Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and this year's Avengers: Endgame.
Deadline first reported earlier this week that talks to extend the deal between Sony and Disney fell apart when the latter pushed for a larger cut of the Spider-Man profits, a point on which Sony has reportedly been unwilling to budge. As a result, Feige would no longer be a producer on future Spider-Man films.
"Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise," Sony said in a statement on Tuesday. "We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film."
John Boone contributed to this report.
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