Kevin Feige Talks About the Marvel and Sony Spilt and How the Deal Came Back Together
Remember that time when Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures broke up after Spider-Man: Far From Home? Those were some crazy days, and there’s no doubt that there was a lot of tension, pressure, and anxiety on both sides. Well, thankfully, Marvel and Sony were able to work things out and make a new deal to continue to work together with Spider-Man.
We can all thank Tom Holland for helping bring things back together when he invited Disney boss Bob Iger for Disney and Sony to get back at the table. Iger said that after speaking to the actor, he "made a couple of phone calls" before touching base with the head of Sony. "He called me and I called them," Iger said, and then added that "sometimes companies, when they are negotiating, they forget that there are other folks out there that actually matter."
Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently talked about all of this in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, saying it was an emotional time for everyone:
“There was a time when it looked like Marvel Studios would not be involved in Spider-Man movies going forward for Sony. It was only a few months, but it was an emotional few months for, I think, all of us on all sides, and a very public few months for whatever reason. I always want to look at the bright side, and the bright side is we got to make two great Spider-Man movies with Amy Pascal and Jon Watts and Tom Rothman and Tom Holland, and I was very proud of that and very happy with that, and of course, wanted it to continue. I always want to be happy with what we have, instead of upset with what we don’t.”
“Luckily, Tom Rothman, and Bob Iger, and Alan Horn, and Alan Bergman, and Tom Holland himself all realized, ‘Wouldn’t it just be more fun if we just kept doing it? Let’s not get business or politics in the way.' Because the deal always started with Amy Pascal and I having nothing to do with numbers, or contracts, or politics. It had to do with story, and a love of Spider-Man and Peter Parker and the Marvel universe.”
As of right now, we know for sure that Spider-Man is getting one more sequel with Marvel and Sony, and he’s also set to appear in one more MCU film, which I assume will be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But who knows, maybe that deal has changed and evolved over time. Maybe they will continue to “have fun” letting all these characters play with each other for years to come. We’ll just have to wait and see.