Tony Stark and Peter Parker will always be inextricably linked in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shared mythology, and the shadow of Spider-Man‘s mentor loomed large over Far From Home despite the movie arriving after Iron Man had made the ultimate sacrifice to save the entire universe during Avengers: Endgame‘s incredibly emotional finale.
Not only was Tony the one responsible for introducing Peter into the franchise when he showed up in Captain America: Civil War and recruited him, but the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist also designed and created Spider-Man’s advanced suit and acted as his onscreen father figure and mentor. It was Peter’s loss in Avengers: Infinity War that saw Tony turn his back on the superhero game, but also spurred him on to return to the fold after he cracked the formula for time travel in the hopes of reversing what he deemed to be his biggest personal failure.
Happy Hogan has now also shifted from being associated with the Iron Man franchise to becoming a key supporting player in the Spider-Man series, and insider Daniel Richtman is claiming that Kevin Feige is planning to further the connection between the two by establishing the web-slinger as Iron Man’s erstwhile replacement as the face of the entire MCU.
“I still hear Feige wants Spider-Man to be the face of the MCU even with Sony involved,” says Richtman. “He doesn’t want Spidey to exit after the 2-movie deal is done. He wants him to be the new Iron Man of the MCU (Either Peter or Miles or both).”
For over a decade, Robert Downey Jr. was viewed as the marquee name and main drawing card of the interconnected universe, and Feige is reportedly hoping to utilize Tom Holland in a similar fashion by having many of the major story threads run through Spider-Man. Sony could always provide a stumbling block to these plans, of course, but their partnership with Marvel Studios has reaped huge rewards for both parties so far, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t continue for a long time to come.
