How Kevin Feige Convinced Sony to Lend Spider-Man to Marvel

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige shares how he reached out and eventually convinced Sony Pictures Entertainment’s former president Amy Pascal to share Spider-Man and let the character finally join the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. The third and current iteration of the web-slinging superhero first debuted in last year’s Captain America: Civil War where fans immediately noticed the difference of this brand new version from his predecessors. Compared to the iterations of Spider-Man played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland’s version immediately takes people back to how the web-slinging Queens native is in the pages of the comics.
Now, Holland is ready to strut his stuff in his upcoming solo act in Spider-Man: Homecoming arriving in theaters in two weeks. Despite some stumbles along the way due to some missteps in marketing, the movie is still tracking for a solid $100 million opening weekend and is also topping social media buzz – good indications that the film will do well in the box office department. But how about the movie’s narrative itself? Robert Downey Jr., who reprises his MCU role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Homecoming, previously said that early screenings for the film are doing pretty well. Granted the actor is actually involved in the project, the trailers itself give a John Hughes-vibe that fans seem to like.

Related: Spider-Man Solo Trilogy Confirmed By Tom Holland

In a recent interview with THR, Feige recalls how he presented his case to Pascal about the possibility of lending Spider-Man to them for creative purposes. It is interesting to know that Feige was the one to take the initiative since, during Sony’s leaked email scandal in 2014, it was revealed they actually wanted Marvel to produce a new trilogy for the character:

“It really came down to me telling Amy in her office that I think the best thing for this character is: Sony has the rights, that’s not changing. Have Sony pay for the movie, distribute the movie, market the movie. Just let us make the movie and incorporate him into our universe.”

Of course, it’s likely it wasn’t as simple as Feige puts it. But if there is one takeaway from his statement, it’s that he knows Sony struggled to give Spider-Man the treatment he deserved to get on film. Business aside, fans are actually the ones who got the most out of this agreement as they can finally see the pages of Marvel comics fully fleshed out on the big screen. Viewers got a hint of that in Civil War and there is so much more to come past Homecoming, with Avengers: Infinity War and Homecoming 2.
By now, it’s well known how groundbreaking it was for Marvel and Sony to ink a deal like this that would benefit both parties involved. The technicalities that the studios had to go through were immense and Marvel seems to have capitalized on the agreement trying to ingrain to everyone’s mind that this Spider-Man is different because this Spider-Man exists in the same universe as the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, with the seemingly misunderstanding that the two companies are currently having (refer to Sony’s Venom spin-off supposedly adjunct to the MCU), fans are freaking out about the possibility that this precious deal between Marvel and Sony will go awry in the near future. On the other hand, Homecoming director Jon Watts has already appeased fans saying that Pascal’s previous comments about the deal may not move past Homecoming 2 is not a confirmed indication that Spider-Man will no longer be part of the MCU after just 4 films.