Karen Gillan Shares Avengers Throwback With Tom Holland After Spider-Man’s Split With Marvel

Nebula after The Snap

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a fascinating place right now, in the midst of the months long0interim period before Phase Four begins with Black Widow. Marvel Studios recently announced plenty of exciting updates regarding what's coming down the pipeline, both in theaters and the various Disney+ series being developed. And while fans are happy to hear what's coming next, they were saddened to hear about Sony and Marvel's joint custody of Spider-Man coming to an abrupt end. Plenty of Marvel stars have been commenting on this change, and now Nebula actress Karen Gillan has seemingly followed suit with a throwback photo working with Tom Holland.

Nebula and Spider-Man don't share a ton of scenes through the MCU. While the blue meanie got a bigger role in Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker spent most of it as dust in the wind, before being revived by The Hulk's snap. But they were both apart of Infinity War's battle on Titan, very nearly foiling Thanos' plans. Karen Gillan shared a photo of herself with Tom Holland and Chris Pratt on set of that blockbuster, check it out below.

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Titan's gravity may be all messed up in Avengers: Infinity War, but it doesn't look like it affected the cast much. Karen Gillan is shown smiling with Tom Holland while taking a break on set, with the young actor rocking motion capture pajamas to stand-in for his Iron Spider suit. You can't tell if Chris Pratt is smiling; Star-Lord's signature mask is covering up his face in the image.

This behind the scenes photo comes from Karen Gillan's personal Twitter, and is the only way she's responded to Spider-Man's departure from the MCU thus far. Captioned "Nebz and the boyz", the image shows the lighter side of such a high-stakes battle in Marvel history. While the group on Titan had the galaxy's fate in their hands, the mood was a bit more fun while filming that epic sequence.

Related: Wild Theory: What If The Spider-Man Break-Up Is Just A Brilliant Scheme?

Karen Gillan's Guardians of the Galaxy character entered the Battle on Titan fairly late, crashing her ship into her father after she managed to escape captivity. It was a momentary distraction that helped the rest of the heroes manage to get the upper hand, especially once Mantis used her empathic abilities to temporarily incapacitate him.

But Nebula quickly realized that Gamora wasn't there, while the Mad Titan managed to acquire the Soul Stone. She put together that her sister was likely murdered, a realization that broke Peter Quill's heart and ruined the group's plan to take the Gauntlet from Thanos. Star-Lord was quickly enraged, striking Josh Brolin's villain in the face a number of times, accidentally hitting Mantis in the process and ending her connection to Thanos' mind.

That set off a series of events which saw the group lose to Thanos, with Doctor Strange eventually giving up the Time Stone in order to save Tony Stark from certain death. Spider-Man was turned to dust shortly after, ending any possible relationship he could have had with Karen Gillan's Nebula.

The two characters did both take to the field in Avengers: Endgame's final battle, and were present during Tony's lakeside funeral. But it looks like we shouldn't expect to see them sharing the screen anytime soon, as Tom Holland's Spider-Man looks like he's leaving the MCU after five appearances in Phase Three. As for Nebula, we should expect her to appear in James Gunn's highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The next installment in the MCU is Black Widow on May 1st, 2020. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.