Remember when fans got to see a young Peter Parker make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Captain America: Civil War? Well what if we told you that wasn’t Peter’s first appearance in the MCU, and a long-running fan theory was just confirmed as true?
According to Tom Holland in an interview with The Huffington Post (which we learned about via io9), Peter’s history with the MCU didn’t start in Civil War, and actually begins all the way back in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and the film’s climatic battle at the Stark Expo. As Iron Man is battling remote controlled Hammer drones, a kid in an Iron Man mask steps into the line of fire. Luckily, Iron Man swoops in for the save and heads off, but not before delivering a “Nice work, kid.”
Apparently, that kid was actually a baby Peter Parker. Watch it again and see:
What makes this moment even better is Holland got to announce the accuracy of the fan theory himself in an interview.
“I can confirm that as of today,” Holland revealed. “I literally had a conversation with [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige only 20 minutes ago. Maybe I’ve just done a big, old spoiler, but it’s out there now. It’s cool. I like the idea that Peter Parker has been in the universe since the beginning.”
io9 even got more details from Holland on the matter, explaining that it was mostly his own thinking, and that he’d “had a conversation with Kevin like 20 minutes before [The Huffington Post] interview and he didn’t confirm it, I took it upon myself just because I thought it would be a good story.”
The fan theory grew in popularity because a couple of factors lined up perfectly for the boy to be Peter Parker. Since Peter is known for being a science wiz in the comics (he developed the formula for his web fluid before graduating high school!), it makes sense he’d attend the Stark Expo. Also, it took place in Queens, NY (Peter’s home) and the boy would roughly be the same age as Peter in the MCU.
It may seem inconsequential, but comic book fans go crazy over continuity nuggets like this. Similar Easter eggs were sprinkled throughout earlier films in the MCU. One example comes from Iron Man 2 also, when a world map of event-level incidents in a background scene pinpointed Black Panther’s home nation of Wakanda.
What do you think of the reveal? Does it make you want to go back and rewatch Iron Man 2 from the beginning?  Let us know in the comments below!
Image Credit: Marvel Studios
Tim Adams is a freelance writer who loves comics and the TV and movies that feature them. Follow him on Twitter!
