Some rules exist to be broken, and apparently, no rule gets broken quite as consistently as the one Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal keeps handing out to her leads. She has now confirmed exactly what she told Tom Holland and Zendaya when they were cast as Peter Parker and MJ, and it clearly did not stick.
Pascal has been shepherding live-action Spider-Man movies for over two decades, long enough to watch the same pattern repeat itself across three different eras of the franchise. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst dated during the original trilogy. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone dated during The Amazing Spider-Man films.
So when Holland and Zendaya landed the roles, Pascal decided to try heading things off before they even started.
Amy Pascal Says She Warned Zendaya and Tom Holland Not to Date
Speaking with Variety at the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Pascal admitted the advice never lands.
“I say this to all of them, and no one ever listens to me,” she said. In a separate BBC interview, she summed up the pattern even more bluntly. “Tobey and Kirsten dated, and Andrew and Emma, and MJ and Peter just always fall in love. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Pascal first revealed the specifics of her warning back in 2021, telling the New York Times she pulled Holland and Zendaya aside individually right after casting.
“I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture. Don’t go there, just don’t. Try not to.” She said she gave Garfield and Stone the exact same talk years earlier, adding, “It can just complicate things, you know? And they all ignored me.”
Holland and Zendaya met while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016 and confirmed their relationship in July 2021. The couple’s marriage became public knowledge after Holland addressed it during a recent Esquire interview, following speculation sparked by AI-generated wedding photos that fooled fans and even his own grandmother.
Pascal, for her part, sounds fully at peace with losing this particular battle. “I think they’re pretty happy together,” she said.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now out in theaters.