It's now been more than two years since Spider-Man: No Way Home saved theaters, but there are still no definitive signs of Spider-Man 4 being on the horizon.
While we know the movie is in the works at Marvel Studios, there have been rumblings lately that they and Sony Pictures are clashing over what direction the wall-crawler should head in. The former is said to want a street-level story which pairs Spidey up with Daredevil for a battle with The Kingpin, while the latter hopes to reunite the three Spider-Men - Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire - for another reality-hopping adventure.
Seeing as Madame Web has just bombed and Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed just shy of $2 billion in 2021, we're not exactly surprised Sony is pushing for the latter. However, it now appears as if the release date is also causing problems.
According to scooper @CanWeGetToast, Sony is pushing for a 2025 release; Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, however, is already stretched thin and would be unable to contribute to the movie in any meaningful way if that goes ahead.
After all, Thunderbolts, The Fantastic Four, and Captain America: Brave New World are all currently slated for next year along with Blade. Then, there are the Disney+ TV shows like Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart which seemingly need a lot of help to reach the finish line.
It's been said that Sony wants Spider-Man 4 in theaters by June 25, 2025 but that they might compromise and push it to next Christmas if they have to. That makes more sense following reports of production beginning early next year.
It's hard not to be a little concerned after reading this. More Spider-Man sooner rather than later would be a good thing, but Marvel Studios' idea seems to be to release this fourth instalment in 2026 as a direct lead-in to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (where the wall-crawler will be a lead character).
Interestingly, there are also rumblings online that the Multiversal aspect we're hearing so much about will be to insert Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven the Hunter into the story somehow; here's hoping his movie is better than it currently looks.
"All I can say is that we have been actively engaging in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character," Holland said of his Spider-Man future last November. "Whether or not we can find a way to do justice to the character is another thing."
"I feel very protective over Spider-Man," he continued. "I feel very, very lucky that we were able to work on a franchise that got better with each movie, that got more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare, and I want to protect his legacy. So, I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It will have to be worth the while of the character."
Stay tuned for more on Spider-Man 4 as we have it.