Even though a fourth Spider-Man movie has yet to be officially announced, Kevin Feige, Any Pascal, and Tom Holland have all made it clear that early plans are in place for a follow-up to the massively successful No Way Home.
Holland and Zendaya are both expected to reprise their respective roles, and we had been led to believe that director Jon Watts was on board to helm, but we're now hearing that the filmmaker may not be a lock to return.
According to insider Daniel Richtman, Watts still hasn't agreed to direct, and the studios are currently considering possible replacements, including Drew Goddard.
This isn't the first time Goddard's name has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the job, as a previous rumor suggested that he might be one of Feige's top picks should Watts decide to step away. Goddard was the EP/writer on Netflix's Daredevil series, but his Marvel connections go back a lot further, as he made uncredited screenplay polishes to the first two Avengers movies.
We still don't know what to expect from Spider-Man 4. Rumors have been doing the rounds online, but we wouldn't put too much stock in them, since the movie doesn't even have a script yet.
Though Holland will almost certainly be back, this could be his final time playing the wall-crawler. During a recent interview, the actor said he feels that he's become too used to the "safety blanket of Spider-Man."
"I want to do things that scare me, things that make me uncomfortable. When you do what we do, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. This show is a perfect example of that. Ben is consistently telling me, if you don’t commit, they won’t believe you. The reason I wasn’t committing is because I was afraid. I’ve never done anything like this before. I got so used to the Marvel machine and the safety blanket of Spider-Man, feeling like I was protected. So, doing something like this was incredibly scary, but because it was so scary, it was so fulfilling and so rewarding. Going forward, if there’s something that I feel like I can’t do, I want to do that one. Playing a sort of stupid English doofus is not what I want to do because that’s my life, right?"
What do you make of this rumor? If Watts did decline to return as director, would you be happy with Goddard stepping in to take over? Drop us a comment down below.