Not many have the ability to call Endgame actor Robert Downey Jr. ‘The Godfather’ and get away with it – except maybe Tom Holland. The pair have built a fascinating relationship over the years founded on their time spent working together in the Marvel films throughout MCU Phase Two and Three. Their on-screen mentor-protégé relationship, which later shifted to a father-son dynamic, touched upon the hearts of many when the same was reflected off-screen as well.
Also read: Robert Downey Jr. Had a 3-Word Response When Marvel Wanted to Cast Tom Holland as Spider-Man
The Beautiful Friendship of Tom Holland and RDJ
Even though we have seen the press junket pranks and their adorable banter in interviews, not much is known about the friendship and repartee between Tom Holland and RDJ beyond the scripted haze of television and cinema. And so, years later, during a 2019 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, the No Way Home actor recounts a moving tale that happened between the pair in the early hours of one random morning which left the poor soul almost paralyzed in fear for an entire day.
“I think we were in London and [RDJ] face-timed me at 2 in the morning. And I didn’t even check to see who it was, I was like ‘ugh who is that’ [flips over the phone], like hung up. And then I woke up in the morning and in my phone, he’s saved as ‘The Godfather’. So I woke up and I panicked, I was like, “Oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to ghost you.” And he almost didn’t reply for ages because of the time difference in L.A. So that was maybe the most stressful day of my life where I thought that my relationship with Downey was over.”
Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland have shared many a moment on the screens, within and beyond the peripheries of Marvel movies, and have quite a lot of fun stories to share. One of those involves Holland fanboying over RDJ only to later find out it was his stuntman. The moment went viral on social media giving rise to numerous memes. Other such encounters involve the pair crashing each other’s press junkets and adorably hogging all the attention while touring for the promotion of their Marvel films.
Tom Holland’s Future in the MCU in the Absence of RDJ
For a scary few minutes, the ground that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man stood upon started to fold in on itself when the negotiations between Sony and Disney began to show signs of tension. But now, all looks to be bright on the horizon with Tom Holland set to return as MCU’s Spider-Man well into the future with a Spider-Man 4 script already in development.
But without Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, Holland’s Peter Parker, who was widely considered as Stark’s protégé, the latter has proven himself to be quite capable of holding out on his own (as compared to his tenure in Homecoming). Now, with a proper mourning period in Far From Home and a tragic evolutionary bildungsroman in No Way Home, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is set to take on the world as a fully-formed Spider-Man and live up to his legendary status as one of the greatest Marvel superheroes to grace the pages of the comic book oeuvre.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy is available for streaming on Disney+.
Source: Late Night With Seth Meyers
