We’ve always wondered how the discussion came to be that Marvel Studios and Sony would work on a Spider-Man remake. The moment the announcement dropped, it was a huge surprise for everyone when the world found out that they’d bring the character back into the MCU. Luckily, the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe offered some insight into how that conversation happened.
It started off as a pitch for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 from producer Amy Pascal to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. She wanted his input on the project, as he had done on the second entry long ago as revealed by the infamous Sony leaks. After he shot the pitch, he highlighted it was just a repeat of what has come before. He then went on to make the pitch about them cooperating on the next project with Marvel Studios taking on the production side of things, similar to DC and Christopher Nolan‘s deal. Pascal shared her feelings on the inquiry in the book.
At first, I was super resentful,” she admits. ‘I think I started crying and threw him out of my office, or threw a sandwich at him – I’m not sure which.’ Then she started to think it through. ‘By the fifth [Spider-Man] movie, we weren’t giving them anything new. And I have to be honest about it, we were trying so hard to be different, we even went into places to be different that we shouldn’t have. We weren’t fresh anymore.’
It turns out though that their love for the character was what inspired them to give the idea a try. It didn’t take long for her to get back to him and figure out what exactly was brewing in his mind. Even recalling his time working on Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man.
Pascal called Feige back the next day after their lunch. The concept of a collaboration between Sony and Marvel Studios had not left her mind. After hearing his specific thoughts on what to do with Spider-Man in the MCU, she admits, ‘The idea of putting him up against a world where everybody had everything and he had nothing was a whole new way of telling his story. I thought, ‘Goddamn, that guy’s smart.
This call would end up changing the filming landscape in a big way, as Tom Holland would take on the mantle and appear in Captain America: Civil War. Crazy to think that a meeting with a sandwich getting thrown in a room would eventually turn into one of the franchise’s cornerstone moves, as Spider-Man became an important cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Source: The Story of Marvel Studios via The Direct
