Spider-Man: Homecoming: Tom Holland confirms fan theory about the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The character's been in the MCU for a lot longer than originally thought

Tom Holland, the star of Spider-Man: Homecoming, has confirmed a fan theory linking the character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from as early as 2010.

The theory generated from a moment during the climax of Iron Man 2 where a small boy, dressed up as the Robert Downey Jr character, is about to be obliterated by a killer drone when the real Iron Man soars in, saves the day and hands all credit to the kid. Following the beat, fans surmised that this child could be a very young Peter Parker - a fact Holland confirmed to Huffington Post.

He said: I can confirm that as of today. I literally had a conversation with 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.

The confirmation is corroborated the by the MCU's timeline - there's six years between Iron Man 2 and the 15-year-old charater's cameo in Captain America: Civil War.

It's unknown whether Spider-Man: Homecoming will reference the moment seeing as Downey Jr's Tony Stark has a lead role, but either way it's a nice bit of continuity for fans especially considering Sony had full ownership of the web-slinger back in 2010.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is released 7 July.