Is Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’?

The second installment of the Spider-Verse movie series expanded the overall storyline as ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ made the Spider-Verse bigger than ever by introducing an entire team of Spider-People dedicated to keeping the multiverse safe. That means that almost all of the Spider-People in history were featured in this movie. So, does that mean that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker was in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’?

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker did not appear in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’ However, he and Doctor Strange were referenced in the movie when Miguel O’Hara talked about what Doctor Strange and “that nerd” did in Earth-199999. As such, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man exists in the same Spider-Verse.

The fact that Holland’s Spider-Man was referenced in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ confirms that all of the Spider-Man movies, series, comic books, and games exist in the same Spider-Verse. So, while Holland didn’t appear, his other live-action counterparts did. Now, let’s talk about this topic in greater detail.

Tom Holland isn’t in Across the Spider-Verse

One of the things that people love about the entire Spider-Verse movie franchise is that it wasn’t shy about giving fans what they want, which is more Spider-People. We saw this in ‘Into the Spider-Verse,’ where we saw obscure Spider-People making their way into the movie to help Miles Morales. And, of course, ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ makes the Spider-Verse even bigger.

In the movie, it was revealed that Miguel O’Hara formed an elite group of Spider-People composed of almost all of the Spider-People in the vast Spider-Verse. The goal was for them to keep the multiverse intact from different threats that could shatter the foundations of the universes that belong in the greater Spider-Verse. And when Miles Morales got invited to Miguel’s HQ in his own universe, we saw a lot of different Spider-People from different universes.

While it isn’t too odd to see Spider-People from animated Spider-Man movies, games, and television shows, it was amazing that there were Spider-People and Spider-Man characters from live-action movies. For example, we saw a live-action version of the Prowler, played by Donald Glover. And we also saw in a scene involving the Canon Events the deaths of the different live-action versions of Uncle Ben in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man movies and Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man films.

Because both Maguire and Garfield were seen in flashback scenes involving their respective uncles’ deaths, some might wonder if the third live-action Spider-Man is in ‘Across the Spider-Verse.’ So, is Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Across the Spider-Verse?

Unfortunately for fans of Holland’s Spider-Man movies in the MCU, the character doesn’t appear in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’ This could be because the MCU version of Spider-Man is part of Marvel Studios’ intellectual property, even though we all know that Sony owns the rights to the theatrical versions of Spider-Man. So, including Holland’s Spider-Man in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ might be a bit difficult for the movie to do, considering that they needed to agree with Marvel Studios first. On the other hand, the Peter Parker versions of Maguire and Garfield are both properties of Sony and Columbia Pictures.

But there were references to the MCU Peter Parker

While we know that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man isn’t in ‘Across the Spider-Verse,’ we know that there were references to his character in the movie. The reference was made quite early when Miguel O’Hara appeared in Gwen Stacy’s universe to help her fight a Vulture variant from a different universe. Miguel scolded Gwen for messing up the multiverse by opening holes that allowed different villains from different universes to invade other universes. In that scene, Miguel yelled, “And don’t even get me started on Doctor Strange and that little nerd back on Earth-199999.” 

While the MCU universe is often regarded as Universe-616 in the MCU, it is actually referred to as Earth-199999 in the greater Marvel Comics universe. As such, the Doctor Strange that Miguel was referring to was the MCU version of the character. And that little nerd that he was talking about was Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.

That means that Miguel was referring to the events that happened in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ where we saw Holland’s Peter Parker telling Doctor Strange to use a spell that would allow everyone in the world to forget who he was. Because of Parker’s meddlesome nature, Strange messed the spell up and opened gateways that forced different Spider-Man villains from different Spider-Man live-action movies to enter the MCU. Of course, Miguel’s job was to make sure that they fixed the different fiascos caused by the different Spider-People in different universes, and that means that he was referring to the fiasco involving Strange and Holland’s Spider-Man.

This also means that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker does exist within the greater Spider-Verse despite the fact that this character is from the MCU. As such, all of the Spider-People from different movies, television shows, comics, and games are all part of the same Spider-Verse, including Holland’s version of Spider-Man.

So, while Tom Holland didn’t make an appearance in ‘Across the Spider-Verse,’ the fact that Miguel O’Hara referenced him suggests that there’s a good possibility that he might make an appearance in the Spider-Verse movies in the future. Of course, his appearance may be limited to a flashback scene, as was the case for the Peter Parker variants of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

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