The MCU's Spider-Man trilogy director, Jon Watts, will not be returning to direct Spider-Man 4, and his reasoning makes me nervous. Spider-Man is one of the MCU's most bankable characters, though Marvel Studios is locked into a deal with Sony that requires the profits to be shared. Thankfully, with Spider-Man: No Way Home becoming one of the 11 MCU movies to make over a billion dollars at the box office, whatever that share may be is nothing to be sniffed at. It also makes the production of Spider-Man 4, which will be Tom Holland's fourth solo outing, an obvious prospect.
Custom image by Ollie Bradley
Details surrounding Spider-Man 4 are so scarce that it hasn't even been formally announced. The MCU's release slate was barely elaborated on at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, leaving the future of anticipated sequels like Spider-Man 4 and Doctor Strange 3 in the air. Regardless, activity behind the scenes has all but confirmed that Spider-Man 4 is en route and will pick up where Spider-Man: No Way Home left off - though I'm skeptical about whether it will strike the same chord.
Jon Watts Is Right - Spider-Man: No Way Home Was A Unique Superhero Success
Spider-Man: No Way Home Was In An Extraordinary Position
After directing three of the MCU's most successful movies in the form of its Spider-Man trilogy, Jon Watts has decided to leave the franchise. Watts has ostensibly done so to focus on his new project, Wolfs, an original action-comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, however, Watts reflected on Spider-Man: No Way Home in a manner that makes me slightly nervous, suggesting that the third MCU Spider-Man installment was an insurmountable success. His full quote is as follows:
“That was such a specific moment in time, and the reaction to that movie was just so unbelievable...It’s never going to be like this, ever again.”
It is hard to argue with Jon Watts. Spider-Man: No Way Home pioneered a kind of extreme superhero movie cameo that few thought possible, but which is now swiftly becoming par for the course. 2021 was an exceptionally unique year as the excitement within packed-out theaters was compounded in a post-pandemic landscape. It was also in a prime position to begin capitalizing on more than two decades worth of Marvel movie nostalgia. This was an initiative continued by Deadpool & Wolverine, though it arguably had to fight a lot harder to keep its cameos under wraps.
It's Going To Be Incredibly Hard To Match Up To No Way Home For Spider-Man 4
Spider-Man 4 Shouldn't Try To Emulate No Way Home Too Closely
Following the near-$2 billion success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, rumors suggest Sony is gearing up to reintroduce Tobey Maguire and/or Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man 4. This rumor has been met with derision from those who feel this is the studio's attempt to recapture the magic of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and that, no matter how it is spun, it will fail to strike the same chord and merely look contrived, despite how beloved the three Spider-Man actors are. That said, even if this approach is avoided, ensuring Spider-Man 4 matches up with its predecessor is still a colossal challenge.
Spider-Man: No Way Home being second only to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame in its worldwide box office is an exceptionally high bar for Spider-Man 4 to clear. Spider-Man cameos have now been exhausted and cameos by faces from other franchises are far more expected now than they were in 2021. Nevertheless, Spider-Man 4 already has the perfect lay-up to explore a new kind of Spider-Man narrative that allows it to step out of Spider-Man: No Way Home's shadow while nurturing Tom Holland's Spider-Man legacy.
How Spider-Man 4 Can Step Out Of No Way Home's Shadow
Spider-Man 4 Needs To Tell A New Kind Of Story
Attempting to build on the scale and significance of Spider-Man: No Way Home with something even bigger and better risks the franchise shooting itself in the foot. Instead, Spider-Man 4 needs to pivot from the vast, multiversal narrative that has typified the MCU Spider-Man's recent outings and lean into a more street-level narrative. This is an opinion I know I'm not alone in holding, but it is also worryingly precarious in the context of the Multiverse Saga and recent rumors that suggest Spider-Man 4 will, in fact, be another multiverse-focused movie.
The fact that Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Peter Parker swinging into action clad in a homemade suit with complete anonymity does fill me with some hope. Even if his next outing does place him square in the center of a multiversal disaster, however, Spider-Man 4 is still primed to explore the eponymous web-slinger in more depth, honing in on more cerebral facets of his character that still remain unexplored. The hope is that Sony and Marvel Studios will see this, and rely on the MCU's Spider-Man's own merits rather than lean on the superhero faces of yesteryear.
