Tom Holland says he told Zendaya ‘right away’ after Robert Downey Jr revealed Marvel return
- Last updated: June 23, 2026 | 13:56
Tom Holland revealed that he was one of the first people to learn that Robert Downey Jr was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and immediately shared the news with Zendaya.
Avengers: Doomsday was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 and Robert Downey Jr was unveiled as the antagonist Dr Doom. The actor played Iron Man across a decade of Marvel movies before the character’s death in Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
“I think I hung up the phone and said, ‘Downey is coming back,’” Holland told Cinemania, recalling his conversation with Zendaya, the actor’s Spider-Man co-star and wife.
Zendaya said that she was “literally in the same room” when Holland received the call and he told her “Right away”.
Holland said he still knew little about Marvel’s broader plans for the film, particularly because of his long-running reputation for accidentally revealing plot details in interviews.
“Yeah, he just called me,” Holland said of Downey Jr. “And I caught up with him a couple days ago on the phone. Yeah, we’ll just have casual catch-ups every now and then. He checks in. And he just told me, and it’s really exciting.”
“I don’t know a lot about those movies, I think by design,” the Cherry star added. “I have a reputation for spoiling certain things, and I think the studios are keeping me from the juicy details.”
“But when I do get to grace that set, I’m so curious, what does that mean for Peter? And how does that work? I’m very excited about whatever it is they’re doing.”
Holland first shared in 2024 that he was among a small number of people entrusted with the secret of Downey Jr’s return.
“I’ve been speaking to him a lot, especially about him making his return, which is super exciting,” Holland said on the Rich Roll podcast.
“That was a tough secret to sit on because I have a reputation for ruining things.”
Not much is known about the plot of Avengers: Doomsday but it’s expected to unite characters from across the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four franchises in a “complete reinvention” of the MCU.
The film is also likely to feature some major surprise returns, including Chris Evans reprising his role as Steve Rogers, marking the unexpected comeback of one of the MCU’s original Avengers years after the character’s apparent farewell in Avengers: Endgame.
Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, the film is slated for release in December 2026 and will lead directly into Avengers: Secret Wars, the saga’s planned conclusion in 2027.
Holland and Zendaya will next be seen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the next instalment in the Spider-Man franchise, which is due to open in cinemas on 31 July.
The pair are also set to appear in Christopher Nolan’s retelling of The Odyssey, with Holland playing Odysseus’s son Telemachus and Zendaya as the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena.
Holland recently confirmed his marriage to Zendaya, ending months of speculation.
The couple, who have been together for nearly a decade, first became the subject of rumours when Zendaya was seen wearing a gold wedding band months ago.
It followed an incident where AI-generated images that appeared to show the wedding ceremony went viral.
Asked if his grandmother had mistakenly believed that she had been snubbed from the invite list, and whether he had to clarify that the photos were fake to any other family members Holland told Esquire: “No, because they were all there. That’s all you’ll get on that.”
The Independent