Disney may have struck a deal with Sony Pictures so that the latter studio will continue to share Spider-Man with Marvel Studios, but it's fair to say we were still surprised to see the wall-crawler in the What If...? trailer. Dubbed "Zombie Hunter Spidey," this version of Peter Parker will don Doctor Strange's Cloak of Levitation and be part of the resistance fighting back against the Marvel Zombies.
When the full cast list for the animated series was revealed, Tom Holland's name was nowhere to be found, which was a surprise considering he's always keen to bring the Spider-Man to life on screen.
Well, talking to Collider, What If...? executive producer Brad Winderbaum shed some light on why the Spider-Man: No Way Home star isn't part of the cast. "You know, I’m not treated to all the ins and outs of the relationship with Sony. But, I think it may have had something to do with it, yeah."
As well as holding the merchandise rights to Spider-Man, it's thought Disney can also do what they choose with the character in animation. There are likely to be limits to that, of course, and we probably wouldn't have seen an animated series following his MCU-set adventures had Sony decided to continue making movies without Marvel Studios' being involved.
However, using him briefly in What If...? probably wasn't that hard to figure out, especially as this Spider-Man is wearing the costume we've only seen the web-slinger don in Disney's theme parks. We're guessing Sony had to give some sort of approval, but throwing Holland into the mix was likely too complicated.
We're expecting the "Marvel Zombies" episode of What If...? to come a little later in the season, but will obviously keep you updated if and when more about Spidey's role is revealed.