Fans across the world were plunged into a state of shock and disarray in the summer of 2019 when the news broke that Sony had prematurely ended its working relationship with Marvel Studios, deciding to take its ball and go home, the ball in this case being Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
There was widespread fury among the online community, especially when Sony had managed to botch two franchises already when they were in full control, while Holland found himself caught in a very unfortunate situation that he had absolutely no control over.
Of course, the two parties eventually reached an accord that’s set to continue for the foreseeable future, but in new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe via ComicBook, Kevin Feige reveals that the breakdown in communication was kept hidden from the cast and crew of Spider-Man: Far From Home.
“There were only a handful of us that were aware of that; we didn’t tell the filmmakers [or] the actors. We didn’t want it to color the finishing of the movie or the press junket. All I cared about was finishing the movie to make it feel as great as we could.”
The split didn’t go public until after the web-slinging sequel was released and hauled in over a billion dollars at the box office, and Feige’s right in saying it would have detracted from the movie were Sony to be in the middle of the firing line for severing ties with the Marvel Cinematic Universe right around the time the middle chapter of the Spider-Man trilogy came to theaters.