Jon Watts
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Ready for more terrible ‘Spider-Man’ news?  When the news of the fracture between Sony and Marvel Studios first broke, it was reported that Sony planned to make, not only one more movie, but two, and that both Tom Holland and director Jon Watts were returning for both.  Now it has been revealed that Watts is not signed to direct the third film.  This news comes from Deadline, who first broke the news of the split.  They have now updated their report to clarify that Watts is not yet signed.  That’s not to say that the won’t.  He just isn’t signed yet.  Holland is reportedly already signed for the two upcoming films.

This is bad news because the one saving grace about the next ‘Spider-Man’ movies being made without Marvel Studios, was that at least Watts would be on hand to direct.  His two films, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ were massive hits, critically-acclaimed, and beloved by fans.  ‘Far From Home’ has made over $1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing of all the ‘Spider-Man’ movies.  ‘Homecoming’ ranks at #3, having earned $880.2 million.  (I have no idea why, but the #2 ‘Spidey’ movie is ‘Spider-Man 3’.)

 

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Apparently, there is some talk that Watts may not come back because he is being courted by numerous studios to work on their projects, but it’s hard to believe he would abandon ‘Spider-Man’ after just two movies when there are so many dangling plot threads lingering.  But Screen Rant raised another, more frightening prospect– that he might not want to make the new movies without Marvel’s involvement because he was planning to continue telling this story within the MCU.  After all, ‘Homecoming’ dealt with the fallout from previous Marvel movies, including the first ‘Avengers’, and Tony Stark was an important supporting character.  ‘Far From Home’ dealt with the aftermath of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’, and heavily featured Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Happy Hogan.  If Watts was planning to further mine the MCU in the third and fourth films, does he now have to scrap all those plans?  And what if he doesn’t want to?  Will he just walk away?

Bear in mind, ‘Far From Home’ is still in theaters, and is getting a re-release with extra footage.  It’s a bit too early to begin talking about the next sequel.  But what do you think?  What would you do if Jon Watts didn’t return for the next ‘Spider-Man’?