Spider-Man Should Be MCU's New Leading Hero, Says 'Avengers: Endgame' Director

The events of Avengers: Endgame changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe in ways we still don't fully understand. 2019's superhero epic went as big as it was possible to go, bringing together every corner of the MCU for one final battle while setting up a brave new world.

The Avengers are seemingly finished. Captain America has vanished. Iron Man and Black Widow are dead. Thor is Odin knows where having adventures out in space. A lot of the recent Marvel movies and Disney Plus shows have done a pretty good job of exploring the state of the MCU post-Thanos, but we're still not sure which hero will step in as the face of the franchise following the departure of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.

While obviously not the leader of The Avengers, RDJ was undeniably the group's frontman and one of the more popular Marvel heroes. But he leaves a gaping hole following his heroic sacrifice in Endgame, and director Joe Russo believes there's only one person who can take his place: Spider-Man.

In a recent interview with GQ, the Endgame director said that Tom Holland's Peter Parker has definitely become the new face of the MCU. Holland is as much RDJ's heir in real-life as Parker is Stark's successor in the movies, he argues.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently the last planned solo movie for Tom Holland in the MCU. Beyond one more rumoured guest appearance in an upcoming Marvel movie (I'd guess Fantastic Four), we have no idea if the tentative agreement between the two companies will continue, or if Sony will simply take Spider-Man back and fold him into its own universe of characters such as Venom and Morbius. There's also the fact that Holland himself has said he's not sure how much longer he wants to play the character.