Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo has opened up about how he really feels about Sony taking Spider-Man out of the MCU, and, spoiler alert, he thinks it was a terrible decision. Now that Spider-Man doesn’t have a place in the MCU, Russo believes the character will suffer.
Joe and his brother Anthony Russo, directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, so it’s pretty obvious they know how to make good superhero movies and their opinion is pretty important.
Talks recently fell apart between Sony and Marvel over-sharing Tom Holland’s Spidey with Sony’s CEO saying the door is closed, for now. It’s reported that the talks broke down over a co-financing agreement and following the split, Marvel’s Kevin Feige will no longer produce the Spider-Man films.
The Russo brothers previously said they weren’t surprised about how the deal fell apart and Joe has now told the Toronto Sun how he really feels about the split.
“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.”
Joe believes Sony is underestimating how much work Feige put into the films and was a huge factor in how successful the first two standalone Spider-Man films were.
To be honest, we have to agree, surely Sony has to consider why this version of Spider-Man has been the most successful?
Anthony also told the publication how difficult it was to get Spider-Man into Captain America: Civil War in the first place and was impressed that Feige was able to pull it off. He added that they had a “wonderful experience” sharing Spidey with Sony for the three films they had with the character.
When news first broke about the Sony/Marvel split, Feige told Entertainment Weekly, “I’m feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy. We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers.
“It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we’d be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I’ll always be thankful for that.”
Holland gave his own statement to EW, saying he had the time of his life working with Marvel on the previous films, but believes the next standalone films “will be equally as awesome and amazing, and we’ll find new ways to make it even cooler.”
We’ll believe it when we see it!