Tom Holland Knew About Robert Downey Jr. Playing Doom and Somehow Kept It Secret

Spider-Man movie star Tom Holland is trying to show everyone that he’s a changed man when it comes to leaking secrets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Holland has finally been cleared to admit that he knew that Robert Downey Jr. was returning to the MCU franchise as Doctor Doom well before it was announced to the world during Marvel’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Holland was so determined to turn around his infamous reputation as a leaker of MCU secrets that he claims “I strategically have done no press,” since finding out RDJ was going to be MCU Doom.

In his full breakdown of the situation during the Rich Roll podcast, Tom Holland revealed that “I’ve been speaking to [Robert Downey Jr.] a lot, especially about him making his [Marvel] return, which is super exciting.”

Holland had to admit that getting that hot scoop left him burdened by knowledge like he was Thanos: “That was a tough secret to sit on, because I have a reputation for ruining things and I strategically have done no press,” Holland said.

How Many Marvel Movies Has Tom Holland Spoiled?

Tom Holland’s history of spoiling his Marvel movie projects is extensive. In 2016, during production on Spider-Man: Homecoming Holland told fans on a live Facebook Q&A about a scene they were filming in Homecoming involving helicopter harnesses and a dunk in a lake for his stunt double. This turned out to be the first battle between Spider-Man (Holland) and The Vulture (Michael Keaton), which left Peter Parker getting dropped in a lake by the flying villain. A year later, right before Spider-Man: Homecoming was released, Holland jumped the gun on confirming the new MCU Spider-Man movies would be a trilogy.

When Holland’s Spider-Man became a breakthrough character, Marvel Studios included him in their big two-part Infinity Saga finale, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Holland turned out to be a nightmare for Marvel PR: months after Homecoming was released, Holland did an Instagram live unboxing of a gift from Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo, which included a first print of the Avengers: Infinity War poster, which Holland was not all supposed to reveal. The next year (2018), the massive cast of Infinity War was doing media events around the world to promote the movie. Screenwriter Stephen McFeely gave Holland the wrong tip about one event, making the actor believe it was held after a premiere screening of Infinity War – leading Holland to take the stage exclaiming “I’m alive!” and spoil his death scene as Spider-Man before release day.

Blowing up Infinity War’s big twist ending didn’t teach Tom Holland to be better: during the promotional tour for Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Holland nearly tripped over his words and nearly revealed that there would be more than one Spider-Man in the film – and his beau Zendaya had to stop him from mentioning who bought Avengers Tower after Homecoming – an MCU secret that is still going to this day.

Now it’s 2024 and it seems Tom Holland has finally stepped his game up as a human vault. Tony Stark would be proud of his protege (if he were still alive). However, news that Holland was in the loop on RDJ being Doom – and the recent non-spoiler that a Spider-Man 4 script has him and Zendaya hyped (Venom? Miles Morales?) – makes us wonder if the big plans for an awkward Spider-Man and Doom meeting aren’t already in the works.

Avengers: Doomsday has a release date of May 1, 2026. Spider-Man 4 is in development.

via Variety