It’s one thing for fans who are not aware of the nuances of the business to go after Sony, it’s another for a filmmaker to do it. It was reported last month that Spider-Man would no longer be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after latest negotiations fell through between Disney and Sony. While a lot of fans carried proverbial pitchforks and yelled on the internet, everyone involved in the Spider-Man films and the MCU in general, shared amicable thoughts, noting that that’s just the nature of the business sometimes. This includes Tom Holland (the actor who plays Spider-Man) and Marvel Studios chief, Kevin Feige.
However, it looks like the co-director of Avengers: Endgame (also: Infinity War, Civil War, The Winter Soldier), 1/2 of the Russo brothers, has other thoughts. In an interview with the Toronto Sun (via IndieWire), Joe Russo had this to say:
“It was a tenuous, fraught union throughout the whole process. But, I will say, stepping back and trying to be objective as possible, that I think it’s a tragic mistake on Sony’s part to think that they can replicate Kevin’s penchant for telling incredible stories and the amazing success he has had over the years. I think it’s a big mistake.”
This is such an odd thing for Joe Russo to say. While Kevin Feige has proven to be an excellent storyteller and has frankly given us the best version of Peter Parker, it’s not like Sony is incapable of telling good comic book stories altogether. After all, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was purely a Sony project.
On top of that, is Joe Russo unaware that it’s Disney who unfairly demanded 50% of the Spider-Man profits from Sony moving forward. Sony didn’t just randomly bid bye-bye to Disney for no reason. Is Joe also implying that the only reason why their MCU films (and heck, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, etc) are great is because of Kevin Feige? What about the screenwriters and directors involved?
Thankfully, Anthony Russo had a more understanding set of comments:
“It was so difficult to get him [Spider-Man] into Civil War. It was an extremely long and hard process. But we were driven to help make it happen. But Kevin Feige pulled it off, somehow…the fact that the marriage fell apart isn’t really that surprising to me and Joe.”
