The Russo Brothers Break Their Silence On Spider-Man Leaving The MCU

Spider-Man is headed back to Sony, and the guys who helped bring him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe are disappointed, but not surprised.

During a recent conversation with The Daily Beast, Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo shared their thoughts on the web-slinger's unceremonious exit from the biggest film franchise in history. The pair related that while they and Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige had been absolutely driven to bring Spidey into their universe, the shared custody deal with Sony was an extremely difficult one to get done, so difficult that negotiations to extend it falling apart didn't register to them as being terribly surprising.

Peter Parker appeared in the MCU for the first time in the Russo Brothers' second Marvel flick: Captain America: Civil War. From the beginning of the project's development, the directors were adamant that the story should include Spider-Man, despite the obvious stumbling block of Sony holding the film rights. Anthony Russo said,

"We were extremely passionate about it. This is something we really wanted to happen, and fought a long time internally at Marvel to make it happen."

There were, of course, contingencies in the very likely event that a deal wouldn't be struck. Black Panther, who was also introduced in Civil War, would have had his role greatly expanded in the event that Spidey couldn't come out to play, and several other narrative elements would have been different as well. The movie's script went through several iterations as all of the involved parties were attempting to reach an agreement, and poor Feige was right in the middle of it all, attempting to juggle the creative and business sides of his job in a way that he hadn't been asked to do before.

Joe Russo said,

"Kevin went through a lot. There were a lot of ups and downs, and he kept walking into our office and we'd go, 'Look, we've got to do it with [Sony],' and he'd go, 'OK, I'll figure it out,' and walk back into his. He was looking for the way out. He wanted to open that door and have us go, 'We figured it out! We don't need Spider-Man!' because it's a lot of work to get two major corporations to play nice with each other, and the fact that it happened at all, we should all be dancing and celebrating that we got that little bit of time."

Anthony Russo agreed, saying,

"I think that's why Joe and I are not so devastated or surprised that there's been a falling out, because it was so hard to make it happen in the first place." Keep watching the video to hear how the Russo Brothers break their silence on Spider-Man leaving the MCU

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