Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal has laughed off her well-intentioned romantic advice to Tom Holland and Zendaya—advice the actors famously ignored. Speaking at the premiere of the franchise’s latest blockbuster, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Pascal reflected on a warning she gave the young stars years ago when they were first cast together, revealing a pattern she’s tried unsuccessfully to break throughout her decades overseeing the Spider-Man films.
When Holland and Zendaya were cast for 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pascal took both actors aside separately to deliver the same message: don’t date. “I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture,” she recalled in a 2021 interview. “Don’t go there — just don’t. Try not to. I gave the same advice to Andrew and Emma. It can just complicate things, you know? And they all ignored me.”
The comment revealed a recurring phenomenon in the Spider-Man franchise, where leading actors who portray Spider-Man and his love interest have consistently ended up dating each other off-screen. Before Holland and Zendaya, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who starred in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, pursued a relationship despite Pascal’s cautionary words. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst also dated while working on the original Spider-Man trilogy, prompting concern from director Sam Raimi at the time.
Now, nearly a decade after those initial warnings, Pascal has acknowledged complete defeat. When asked at the Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiere if she thought Holland and Zendaya would eventually marry after her warning against dating, Pascal gave a straightforward answer: “No. I say this to all of them, and no one ever listens to me.” She then smiled and added, “I think they’re pretty happy together.”
Holland and Zendaya’s romance began quietly after they first met during a screen test for Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016. Rumors of a relationship circulated for years, but the pair maintained they were just friends, even dismissing reports with jokes on social media. Their relationship wasn’t publicly confirmed until July 2021, when paparazzi photographed them kissing in Holland’s car in Los Angeles. Since then, the couple has been notably private, rarely appearing together at public events outside their shared film projects.
Their relationship deepened over the years as they continued to collaborate on subsequent Spider-Man films. Holland has spoken openly about how his partnership with Zendaya has become essential to his work, telling a podcast host that acting alongside her is a “lifeline” and that he “couldn’t imagine doing what I do without her.” During the filming of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the two reportedly worked together to improve a scene they felt wasn’t working, with Holland crediting their relationship as giving him the courage to be honest with Zendaya about the creative concerns.
The couple’s relationship reached another milestone at the end of 2024 when Holland proposed during the holiday season. Zendaya debuted an engagement ring at the 2025 Golden Globes, confirming speculation about an impending marriage. In March, Zendaya’s longtime stylist Law Roach announced on a red carpet at the Actor Awards that the wedding had already taken place, though the pair has chosen to keep details of their nuptials private.
Holland effectively confirmed the marriage in a June interview with Esquire. When asked about fake AI-generated wedding photos that had circulated online depicting a ceremony in Lake Como, Italy, Holland revealed that his grandmother had seen the images and worried she hadn’t been invited. When questioned whether he needed to reassure other family members about the fabricated photos, Holland paused and replied, “No, because they were all there.” He declined to share any additional details, telling the interviewer, “That’s all you’ll get on that.”
Pascal’s bemused acceptance of her failed romantic interventions comes at a moment of massive success for the Spider-Man franchise. Spider-Man: Brand New Day shattered box office records, earning a record-breaking $360 million in its domestic opening weekend, the largest debut in North American box office history. The film surpassed the previous record held by 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which opened to $357 million. The movie has continued its extraordinary performance, crossing the $1 billion mark globally in just six days, becoming only the second film ever to reach that milestone so quickly.
As for Pascal’s advice-giving days with Spider-Man stars, she appears to have accepted the inevitable. When speaking to the BBC about the pattern, she reflected with a sense of resignation: “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.”