Tom Holland may have been playing a risky game when he declared he wanted to hang up the Spider-Man suit by the time he turned 30. The actor was just 19 when he signed on to play Peter Parker, making his debut in Captain America: Civil W** before his standalone movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, in 2017. And unlike in his previous comment, Holland is still playing Spider-Man at the age of 30. 

Now, nearly five years after that headline-making comment, Holland explained the real reason behind it.

It turns out Tom Holland was seemingly trying to scare Sony when he suggested that he did not want to play Spider-Man after 30. After making the comment in a 2021 interview with GQ, the actor recently revisited the comment in a conversation with the same publication and revealed his real reason. And rather than completely walking back his earlier statement, Holland appeared to make a few changes.

“So maybe I need to change the quote to 37. I could also have been trying to leverage Sony and scare them into thinking I wasn’t going to do ‘Spider-Man 4’ now that I had a new deal on the horizon,” he told GQ magazine. 

He further added, “So I don’t know what it could have been. It could’ve been part of a strategy to create fear.”

Quite clearly, Holland is not ready to bid goodbye to the character and has said he would happily continue playing Spider-Man for as long as the studio wants him to. Back in 2019, he even personally spoke with Bob Iger in an effort to help Disney and Sony reach a new agreement that would keep Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, behind the scenes, Holland has been crucial and made several meaningful contributions to the franchise. 

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Although he wants to pass the torch to a new actor, Holland believes he still has one final job to do before stepping away from the role.

In an interview with Empire, Tom Holland opened up about eventually passing the baton to the next actor in the franchise. However, before stepping away, he wants to take on the mentor role that Robert Downey Jr. played for him when he joined the franchise. Holland hopes to help introduce the next generation of characters and guide them into the franchise. 

"But, if I could do what Downey did for me, then I would be so content swinging off into the sunset," Holland added.

Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark was a mentor to Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Even behind the scenes, the Iron Man star also helped Holland step into a new era of Spider-Man films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With that experience in mind, Holland appears eager to do the same for the franchise's future. Clearly, he still feels he has more to contribute and is not planning to hang up the Spider-Man suit anytime soon.

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What do you think about Tom Holland's strategy? Let us know in the comments.