Tom Holland, the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is set to make his debut as Spider-Man in next year’s Captain America: Civil War and then lead his own Spider-Man-centric franchise— yes, the third of the decade. The 19-year-old actor beat out a wide field of competition to prove that his skinny shoulders are worthy of propping up what’s basically Sony’s only franchise, and appealed not just to the executives at Marvel and Sony, but, in theory at least, to audiences who were just getting adjusted to Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.

But there’s one person who Tom Holland had to impress to get the job whom you might not have seen coming: Robert Downey Jr. The Iron Man actor remains the linchpin of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even with no standalone Iron man movies currently planned, and according to The Hollywood Reporter Downey Jr. tested alongside all of the Spider-Man finalists during the audition process. Chris Evans, who plays Captain America and is obviously a central part of next year’s big Marvel movie, also tested with Holland later on, but Downey Jr. seems to have functioned as the clearinghouse. If you got along with Downey, you got closer to the part, and Holland apparently fit the bill.

With possibly literally every SAG-registered actor currently appearing in Civil War, it had been unclear how much of an introduction Spider-Man would get in the film, opening May 6 next year. But Downey Jr.’s presence at the screen tests suggests that Iron Man and Spidey will make the time to toss some quips each other’s way, at least long enough for us to meet the new kid and think “Hey, I’d like to see a whole movie about him.” (The first standalone Spider-Man adventure is scheduled for July 2017). The ever-expanding world of comic book movies is, yes, exhausting, and constantly threatening to topple under its own weight. But if we’re picking our new heroes in the mold of Robert Downey Jr., at least we’ll be entertained amid all the confusion.