Amy Pascal Reveals How Marvel & Sony Came Together Over Spider-Man

The deal between Sony and Marvel Studios to jointly work on the Spider-Man character was monumental. One just in the fact that it had never been done before, but two that it worked brilliantly and effectively righted the ship on an iconic character so smoothly.

It’s not like Sony hasn’t had success with the character before that though, but it was time for a shakeup in the creative process. Producer Amy Pascal recently spoke to Collider about the collaboration, and how it all came together.

“We made five Spider-Man movies, and we needed to do something different. And we tried doing a lot of different things as you all know and documented. But the thing that we hadn’t done was put him in the Marvel universe, and put him in a world where there are other superheroes. Because he was always the only superhero. And there’s only so many times that you can tell the story of, “I really want everyone to love me and if I tell them I’m Spider-Man, they’ll love me, but I can’t tell them!” We’ve told that story as many ways as I could figure out, and Kevin [Feige] and I had been working together since the very first movie, because he used to get coffee for [producer] Avi [Arad], if you can believe it. He was very good at getting coffee, though. He’s an even better producer, but he’s also good at coffee. So it felt like we needed to do something else and this felt like the right thing to do.”

“And Kevin and I had been talking for a very long time about that, and here’s the thing that I wanted, I emphasize for all of you, because I think this is really important and I don’t think it will ever happen again in the history of the movie business,win win” said Pascal. “You have three studios that came together to have this movie being made. No studio likes to share anything with anyone, let alone three studios. And truthfully—there is nothing cynical I can find in this statement—everybody did it because they wanted Spider-Man to be great. Truly, it was because Spider-Man is great, the character is great and people love him. That’s good for Disney. That’s good for Marvel. And that is certainly good for Sony. So, the fact that all these companies were willing to work together to make that happen—believing that everybody needed each other in order to have that happen. I think that’s pretty miraculous.”

Pascal is right that it in effect benefited all three companies. Disney reaps the rewards of another successful franchise, while Marvel Studios gets to have it’s marquee character involved in the cinematic universe, and Sony’s series now has a brand new lease on life. If there was ever a textbook definition of win-win, it would be this scenario.

A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine – distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

The cast includes Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, with Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr. It also includes Jon Favreau, Martin Starr, Kenneth Choi, Michael Mando, Selenis Leyva, Isabella Amara, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., JJ Totah, and Hannibal Buress.

Next up for Marvel is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on May 5, 2017. Spider-Man: Homecoming lands on July 7, 2017, followed by Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017. After that Black Panther debuts on February 16, 2018, while Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018. Ant-Man and the Wasp is slated for July 6, 2018, followed by Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.

MORE SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING: Producer Comments On How Many Marvel Films The Hero May Star In / How Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Compares To Past Stars / Michael Keaton Shared Batman Advice With Tom Holland