A Sony executive was so incensed by Kevin Feige’s suggestion that they abandon their plans for Spider-Man, and have the character join the Marvel Cinematic Universe instead that they chucked a sandwich at him. The Spider-Man sandwich situation was revealed by authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry in their book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As reported by Collider the book lifts the lid on the earliest days of Marvel and Sony Pictures’ relationship and reveals those working at the two studios haven’t always got on. According to the book Feige, who was a silent consultant on Sony’s Spider-Man movies, met with Amy Pascal – the chairperson of Sony’s motion pictures group – to discuss his involvement in The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
During the meeting, Pascal apparently outlined their ambitious plans for their series of action movies but Feige rather bluntly told her, “Amy, in all fairness, it’s not gonna work.” He then did the unthinkable and made a counterproposal; let Marvel Studios take control of the Spider-Man franchise moving forward.
“The only way I know how to do anything is to just do it entirely. So why don’t you let us do it? Don’t think of it as two studios. And don’t think of it as giving another studio back the rights,” Feige is quoted as saying in the book. “No change of hands of rights. No change of hands of money. Just engage us to produce it. Just pretend it’s like what DC did with Christopher Nolan. I’m not saying we’re Nolan, but I am saying there is a production company that is doing this pretty well. Just engage the services of that production company to make the movie.”
Pascal was apparently outraged at basically being asked to hand over Sony’s crown jewels and chucked Feige out of her office, or chucked a sandwich at him, she can’t remember. “At first, I was super resentful,” she told Bennett and Terry. “I think I started crying and threw him out of my office or threw a sandwich at him – I’m not sure which.”
After the dramatic meeting, though, Pascal came round to the idea and decided Feige was right. “Pascal called Feige back the next day after their lunch,” the book reveals. “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.'”
The resulting partnership between Sony and Marvel revitalised Spider-Man as a franchise and saw the Webslinger introduced to the MCU’s shared universe during Civil War.