The filmmakers behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse did not ask permission from Kevin Feige when they roasted the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Christopher Lord and Phil Miller went all out when they expanded on their Spider-Man film universe, going as far as referencing the MCU itself. However, as it turns out, they did not ask for approval before Oscar Isaac's Miguel O'Hara, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099, uttered the line, "Don't even get me started on Doctor Strange and that little nerd on Earth-199999," which undoubtedly references the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
While talking with Collider, Lord admitted they did not reach out to Feige to make that joke while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was in production. "There was no negotiation. We did it. It’s been our policy to do what we think is interesting and best and let the lawyers and business affairs people figure out what’s possible, and so far, we’ve been able to do the things that we think are good," Miller said. Lord added that "Marvel has given us a lot of rope. It’s been a very fruitful collaboration. But it’s not like there’s some shadowy board of figures that you have to run things by. I think Kevin’s a big admirer of the first movie and just believes like a rising tide lifts all boats. Like, 'These movies are cool, and it makes those movies cool. And we make each other cool.'" Miller noted the references are made with love, saying, "If it were somehow mean-spirited or coming from a place of anything other than admiration and enjoyment, I think it might be a thing. But as it is, it’s just been a very pleasant collaboration."
Sony and Disney agreed to share Spider-Man's screen rights back in 2015, and those working in the MCU should not be mad at all, considering all that the union has done for them. Agreeing to share Spider-Man's film rights gave Marvel Studios more fanfare because fans wanted to see their take on the wall-crawler. Better yet, because of the critical success and fanbase that arose from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Marvel Studios took inspiration to create their own multiverse movie with their release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, a commercial and critical success.
All legalities aside, it makes sense that Across the Spider-Verse would reference the MCU since they referenced many other popular Spider-Man properties that fans would pick up on, such as the current video game franchise, the original Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man duology, and the 1960's Spider-Man cartoon. They even had a brief cameo from the iteration of the cult hit Spider-Man cartoon, The Spectacular Spider-Man. It would have been strange to see them not reference arguably the most popular Spider-Man property currently, especially after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Though the reference to the MCU's Spider-Man was satisfactory above all else, the one shame of it all is that we didn't get to see stock footage of Holland as we did with Maguire and Garfield. That also may have come down to legal technicalities since Sony owns the exclusive rights to those two Spider-Man franchises but not Holland's. Considering fans would love to see all three Spider-Mans on the big screen again, we may see them reunite for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. And if not, they may see more popular versions of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters
Source: Collider Interviews/YouTube