Destin Daniel Cretton is currently in talks to direct the fourth solo Spider-Man film for Sony and Marvel Studios, as per the Hollywood Reporter. The trade is saying that the director will be taking the reins of the franchise from Jon Watts who molded the previous three Spider-Man installments into a multi-billion dollar franchise for the two studios.
Additionally, Tom Holland will be resuming his role of Peter Parker, aka your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. There is no word as to whether any of the other main actors from the previous trio of films, specifically Zendaya as Peter’s girlfriend MJ, will be returning as well.
The last film, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, ended with a magical spell being cast that removed everyone’s knowledge of Peter’s dual identity of Spider-Man. There is no concrete news as to how this storyline will be picked up for this fourth film. Previous reports stated that Sony and Marvel were at some loggerheads as to how a fourth film would progress, with Sony pushing for more multiversal shenanigans as seen in No Way Home while Marvel wanted to bring the character down to Earth with a more street-level oriented plot.
This report marks the first solid news about a fourth Spider-Man installment moving forward. This past summer at both San Diego Comic Con and the Disney centered D23 convention, Marvel and Sony had been mum as to what might be in the works for the wall crawling superhero amidst all the other Marvel Cinematic Universe news that was announced.
Previously, Cretton directed Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings for Marvel. That 2021 film which, which starred Simu Liu as the martial arts-centric superhero, earned $432 million at the global box office, putting it in the midrange of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films release post-The Avengers: Endgame.
Cretton has proven to be someone Marvel has wanted to stay in business with following the success of Shang-Chi back in 2022. The studio originally had him attached to help develop and ultimate direct the upcoming fifth Avengers film when it was subtitled The Kang Dynasty. However, after the firing of Jonathan Majors from the role of Kang, the film’s storyline shifted and Cretton was shifted over to concentrate on developing a sequel to Shang-Chi. Cretton also directed episodes of Marvel’s upcoming Wonder Man series for the Disney+ streamer. With this fourth Spider-Man film becoming the priority, it does unfortunately look as if that pushes off a Shang-Chi follow-up to further down the Marvel Cinematic Universe calendar.
