Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of a number of MCU entries including Avengers: Endgame, have stated they aren’t surprised that Marvel has lost the right to use Spider-Man. The falling out between Marvel and Sony resulted in the former being unable to use the character, to whom the latter controls the rights, for use in any future MCU movies.

The problems began last month when negotiations broke down between Sony and Disney over the use of Spider-Man in the MCU, the issue, somewhat predictably, reportedly being one of money. No agreement could be made over how production costs would be shared and profits split, with each side deciding they had the upper hand and so both refused to compromise on what they wanted. This resulted in both corporations walking away and Sony blaming Marvel Studios in their official statement, leaving fans as the ones to have lost out the most.

The news of the Russos’ view of the matter came from The Daily Beast, who interviewed them at the Venice Film Festival where they were promoting Mosul, a film about a police unit fighting to liberate the titular Iraqi city from the control of ISIS, on which the Russos were producers. Broadly speaking, the brothers were unsurprised that the deal fell apart since it had been such a challenge to put together in the first place. Joe stated, “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 then added, “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.”

With the Russos having directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, they have been a part of the MCU inner circle for quite some time. In particular, with Civil War introducing Spider-Man into the MCU, they were a part of bringing him into the fold and will have experienced first hand what a protracted and complicated process it was to get Sony and Disney to agree to share one of the world’s most recognizable and popular characters who the former were in the fortunate position of controlling the film rights to.

While those privy to the behind the scenes workings of the films might be unsurprised things fell apart, it came as quite a shock to the fans. Fans were quite enjoying seeing Peter Parker flit back and forth between being part of the emotional core of the MCU that allowed many people to develop a strong attachment to him, and his solo outings made by Sony that let him stand on his own and grow as a character independent of his adventures in cosmic battles for the fate of the universe. It’ll be a strange and sudden change for there to be no further Spider-Man appearances in the MCU and all references to it excised from his own films, but we can only hope that the absences won’t end up seeming like too much of a loss.

Next: Spider-Man Has A LOT Of Unresolved MCU Storylines

Source: The Daily Beast

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