The Story Behind Spider-Man/Iron Man 2 Cameo

Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts explains the origins of Peter Parker's cameo in Iron Man 2. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 nearly done with its run at the theaters, Marvel's full attention is on their upcoming collaboration with Sony. So far, all signs are pointing towards Homecoming being a proper success in its own right. Early reactions have been positive, and the movie has led in social media buzz for two weeks in a row.

With the film not even out yet, talk has already turned to the future of the franchise. Star Tom Holland recently opened up about the villains he wants to face in the Homecoming sequel. Meanwhile, director Jon Watts has been opening up about Homecoming's connections to the MCU. And as if all of that weren't enough, Holland has now confirmed an MCU fan theory that Peter Parker was the young kid from Iron Man 2. Now, we know a bit more about how the retcon came to be.

Uproxx spoke with Watts about Spider-Man: Homecoming and specifically asked him about the retconned Easter egg from Iron Man 2. Watts then broke down how the new piece of canon was introduced, along with how Damage Control was finally brought into the MCU.

"I was watching all these other movies and being like, ‘What if that little kid at the Stark Expo was Peter Parker? In the Iron Man mask.’ Like, he’d be about the right age for that. And he loves Tony Stark. ‘Oh, what about after the Avengers battle, who would clean that stuff up?’ Because they mention damage control at one point in the movie. So it’s this thing where, because it’s not completely figured out, that you can just go back and basically write fan fiction for those movies, then the fan fiction becomes reality. A lot of the Easter eggs in this movie just started by rewatching the movies.”

The way Watts describes it, he was basically living a fan's dream. Lovers of genre media and members of fandoms spend hours theory-crafting and speculating about canon, but Watts was actually able to turn his desires into a reality. Of course, the reveal of Peter's longevity in the MCU is all happening outside of the film world. That could change in the future though:

“I mean, I remember watching that with Kevin Feige and everyone and being like, ‘Does the math work on that?’ He was like, ‘It might, maybe.’ Then I found out that was Jon Favreau’s kid.”

There's no guarantee a future film will discuss this, but it seems like Tony and Peter would have to have the conversation at some point. In the meantime, it's a rare piece of connective tissue that seems to be supported by all involved. Interestingly, but another reveal from Kevin Feige teed up a similar origin story.

Though not seen in Homecoming, Feige revealed that Miles Morales does exist in the MCU. While more planned out than the Iron Man 2 Easter egg, it's a nice set-up for the future unveiling of Miles as the next Spider-Man. In the meantime, we'll be digging through the MCU canon so far to see if we spot any other potential connections to Spider-Man: Homecoming.