Destin Daniel Cretton is doing whatever a spider can.
The filmmaker behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has signed on to direct Spider-Man 4. The move brings an end to speculation of who would spin the web for one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood.
Cretton will bring fresh blood to this iteration of Spider-Man, which stars Tom Holland and is a co-production between two separate studios, Sony and Disney-owned Marvel. And it will make him the fourth director to take on a Spidey solo feature. Jon Watts directed the previous three Holland-starring movies, while Marc Webb helmed the two Amazing Spider-Man movies that starred Andrew Garfield. Sam Raimi directed the trilogy that featured Tobey Maguire.
Sony and Marvel had no comment.
The Holland Spider-Man movies grew into $1 billion franchise, with Spider-Man: No Way Home enticing pandemic-weary audiences out of their homes and grossing almost $2 billion after it was released in December 2021. The film also starred Maguire and Garfield.
Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are back on script duties, while Marvel head Kevin Feige and former Sony head Amy Pascal are producing.
Sources say that Spider-Man 4 is running, not crawling, full steam ahead and will shoot early next year.
It is unclear what the story will be, as No Way Home ended with the world forgetting that teenager Peter Parker was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. That memory wipe included those closest to him, including MJ (Zendaya), who no longer even know who Peter is. In June 2023, Holland told The Hollywood Reporter that he and the producers had recently undergone a series of meetings on a potential fourth installment. “The first few meetings were about, ‘Why would we do this again?’ And I think we found the reason why,” Holland said.
Cretton is popular in the Marvel fold. His Shang-Chi is considered a highlight in the post-Avengers: Endgame phase of movies, and he was on board to direct the mega-budget Avengers: The Kang Dynasty but dropped off last November amid that project’s changing production schedule and evolution stemming from Jonathan Majors’ assault trial.
His nabbing the gig Spidey gig is also vote of confidence on his work on Wonder Man, Marvel’s Disney+ series that stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and that is in post-production.
The filmmaker remains attached to direct a live-action adaptation of Naruto, and a sequel to Shang-Chi, but it is unclear how Spider-Man will affect those projects.
