The MCU version of Spider-Man has deliberately been portrayed in a different way from how he was in Sony’s movies in order to avoid showing audiences the same old thing. This means that while Peter Parker must’ve lost his Uncle Ben as part of his origin story like always, the teen hero’s surrogate father has never even had his name said aloud in the franchise. As we all know though, the other surrogate father Peter has had in the MCU is Tony Stark/Iron Man.
However, Tony tragically met the same fate as Uncle Ben in Avengers: Endgame, when the Armored Avenger sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos. But if he were Peter and given the choice to resurrect one late loved one, who would Tom Holland pick? This was the question put to the star in an interview with IGN at the premiere of his new Pixar movie Onward. And out of Peter’s parents, Uncle Ben and even Gwen Stacy, Holland immediately chose Mr. Stark.
“It’d have to be Tony Stark. It’d have to be him. Because I love working with Robert so much and if I could do another day with him, I would. It would be great fun.”
Obviously, it makes total sense that Holland would want to work with his old pal and mentor Robert Downey Jr. again. You could also argue that MCU Peter may well go for this option, too, if he was given the magical choice. In the absence of his uncle, Spidey latched onto Tony as another parental figure and the pair grew very close. After all, we saw in Spider-Man: Far From Home how lost the kid was without him.
Of course, many Spider-Man fans haven’t been happy with the way Ben Parker, usually so instrumental to Peter’s heroic journey, has been sidelined in the MCU. And despite what Holland may want, it does look like Tony is gone for good. So, it’s possible that Ben could be finally explored in Spider-Man 3 or beyond. Not that they would resurrect him, of course, but he could certainly feature in a flashback. Holland did once say he’d vote for Tobey Maguire to play the MCU’s Ben, after all.
