By Filmmaker Jon Watts went from small indie films like “Cop Car” to breaking through big time with 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” at Marvel Studios.
He returned for both “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in 2019 and then “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, the latter proving a juggernaut hit.
From there, he initially was to stay at Marvel Studios helming “The Fantastic Four,” but after a few months walked from that project.
Instead, he most recently directed the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led “Wolfs” which hits Apple TV+ at the end of September, and served as showrunner on the upcoming “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” series due later this year.
With Sony and Marvel wanting a fourth Tom Holland-led “Spider-Man” film sometime in the near future, you might expect Watts will come back to the franchise, but the director explained to THR about why he’s moving on from the MCU – namely he can’t top ‘No Way Home’ and likes doing stuff that’s his own creation:
“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.
Sometimes you do an action movie, and all the fun action stuff is given to the second-unit director. On the Marvel movies, you split up the work because there’s so much to be done. Rarely do you get the Christopher Nolan opportunity to do all of it. On this one [Wolfs], I was like, ‘I want to shoot every single shot.’
I was just getting started and Marvel came along – and I take full creative ownership over all those films – but ‘Spider-Man’ is always going to be Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s creation. This was the chance for me to go back to my voice and my vision and my style. Wolfs is mine, and that’s a really good feeling.”
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige acknowledged back in July that they had a great working relationship with Watts but they are already looking elsewhere for the next Spidey: “He’s got lots of things going on now. So we’ll probably be looking for somebody else, just because he’s busy.”
Just when the next “Spider-Man” will head into production isn’t clear, though it has been rumored it’s likely trying to be one of the few films released between the next two “Avengers” films.
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