Endgame director thinks Sony is making “tragic mistake” with Spider-Man

Sony and Disney couldn’t come to an agreement about letting letting Spider-Man appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which means that, at least for now, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man won’t be mixing it up with any of the Avengers, he won’t be dealing the fallout from Tony Stark’s death, and Aunt May and Happy won’t be taking their delightful summer fling to the next level.

That’s going to make things tricky for the MCU, since Spider-Man was being positioned as such an important character. Joe and Anthony Russo, the guys behind Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were part of that build-up. They talked to the Toronto Sun about Sony’s decision to part ways with Disney, and what happens now.

“It was so difficult to get him into Civil War,” Anthony said. “It was an extremely long and hard process. But we were driven to help make it happen. But (Marvel Studios President) Kevin Feige pulled it off, somehow. Disney and all the good people at Sony found a way to make it work and it lasted a few films.”

"We had a wonderful experience with that and I think audiences really appreciated that marriage. But we know how hard that marriage was to make in the first place, so the fact that the marriage fell apart isn’t really that surprising to me and Joe."

Joe echoed his brother’s words but was a little more direct.

“It was a tenuous, fraught union throughout the whole process,” he said. “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.”

For those not up on the latest superhero business news, the original deal between Sony and Disney held that Disney could use Spider-Man in Marvel movies in exchange for Marvel president Kevin Feige working on solo Spider-Man movies for Sony. Disney wanted to renegotiate how much each company invested in and profited from those solo Spider-Man flicks, Sony said no, and here we are.

Will Spider-Man ever return to the MCU? Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra was ambiguous when talking about it the other week. “[F]or the moment the door is closed.” Hopefully it’ll open sooner than later, for Sony’s sake, and for ours.

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Meanwhile, in the midst of this kerfuffle, MCU boss Kevin Feige just released a never-before-seen deleted scene from the first Iron Man movie, where Nick Fury alludes to both Spider-Man and the X-Men in a roundabout way:

“As if gamma accidents, radioactive bug bites and assorted mutants weren’t enough, I have to deal with a spoiled brat who doesn’t play well with others and wants to keep all his toys to himself.” At the time, Marvel wasn’t allowed to invoke either Spider-Man or the X-Men in its movies, although Disney got around the X-Men problem by buying 20th Century Fox, which owned the movie rights to the characters. The Spider-Man problem, for better or worse, still remains. Still, we get why they had to take that line out back in 2008 when Iron Man came out:

Is this video a little jab at Sony from Disney? The timing does seem pretty perfect.

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h/t ScreenGeek