Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have opened up about the news that Spider-Man would be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and both have said they aren't too surprised that it happened considering how hard it was to get him in there in the first place.

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Every Spider-Man Movie Spin-Off in Development 15 IMAGES

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Speaking to The Daily Beast, the Russo brothers talked about how "extremely passionate" they were about bringing Tom Holland's Spider-Man in to the MCU.“We were extremely passionate about it. This is something we really wanted to happen, and fought a long time internally at Marvel to make it happen,” Anthony Russo said.“It wasn’t easy,” adds Joe Russo. “Kevin [Feige] went through a lot. There were a lot of ups and downs, and he kept walking into our office and we’d go, ‘Look, we’ve got to do it with [Sony],’ and he’d go, ‘OK, I’ll figure it out,’ and walk back into his. He was looking for the way out. He wanted to open that door and have us go, ‘We figured it out! We don’t need Spider-Man!’ because 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 concluded by stating that this reason was why he and Joe were not too surprised when the news broke that Sony and Disney/Marvel couldn't reach a deal to keep Holland and Spider-Man in the MCU. “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,” Anthony Russo said.As for where the Sony-Disney Spider-Man deal stands as of this writing, Sony recently came out and said that "for the moment, the door is closed." For more on this deal and to catch up on all that's happened, be sure to check out Sony's official statement on "Disney's decision" to not come to an agreement, what MCU threads will most likely have to be dropped if no deal is made, and an explainer of the original deal that first saw Holland's Spider-Man join Captain America: Civil War.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who still hopes a deal can be made. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.