Spider-Man: Far From Home is a movie that has a lot of heavy lifting to do. It's the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie after Avengers: Endgame and being the next chapter of the story when the last one has become one of the most popular movies ever made is no small responsibility. However, Far From Home is also following in the footsteps of a film many view as the best Spider-Man movie ever made, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The animated movie is separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the character, though the premise of the film itself opens up the idea of multiverse, as Far From Home happens to be teasing as well. This means that the version of Spider-Man voiced by Shamiek Moore and the one played by Tom Holland might actually occupy neighboring universes. It turns out there was initially a plan to suggest that, as Holland very nearly lent his voice to Into the Spider-Verse.
In an interview with JOE, Tom Holland reveals that there was talk of Holland performing a cameo role, but that, for some reason, it never came to be. According to Holland...
I was supposed to be in it. Yeah, there was going to be another Peter Parker. It was a scene in a train station or something. It was going to be like an Easter egg. I was going to walk through the background and say like, ‘Hey, kid’ or something. Never happened. Heartbroken.
It's not clear why such an idea never happened. Tom Holland doesn't go into detail if he knows anything. It could have been that schedules that didn't work ended up killing the idea, or it could have been that the decision was simply made not to bother.
Tom Holland isn't the only live-action Spider-Man who could have appeared in Into the Spider-Verse. One of the directors has spoken about the fact that there was talk at one point about bringing Tobey Maguire in to voice the middle-aged version of Peter Parker than ended up being done by Jake Johnson. In the end there was a fear that it might end up confusing people.
Perhaps that would have been the case with Tom Holland as well. Even if Holland's Peter Parker only showed up briefly, any connection to the MCU version of the character, between the animated and live action stories, might have ended up making people think they were watching an MCU film, which this really wasn't.
Tom Holland does say that he loved Into the Spider-Verse, and he also admits to feeling some pressure now that Spider-Man: Far From Home is following it up. Whether or not the new Spider-Man movie is the best Spider-Man movie is certainly a topic of discussion. Some critics clearly say no, though some would say yes.
