Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' hunt for a Spider-Man 4 director continues, with Bad Boys: Ride or Die helmers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah now rumoured to be in the running for the job.
They previously worked with Marvel Studios on Ms. Marvel after directing the premiere and finale of the critically acclaimed Disney+ series. They then made the leap to the DCEU to direct Batgirl, only for the near-completed movie to be scrapped as a tax write-off by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Talking to ComicBook.com, El Arbi and Fallah addressed the Spider-Man 4 rumours head-on.
"It came out of nowhere, because we've got the Sony bosses here, and they didn't tell us anything!" El Arbi joked before Fallah chimed in to say, "I'm a superfan of Spider-Man, so you can imagine, when I was reading that, I was like, 'Whoa - that would be cool.'"
The duo worked with Spider-Man: Homecoming star Michael Keaton on Batgirl after he reprised his role as Batman (in a post-The Flash DCEU, he'd have permanently replaced Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight).
When the site suggested they could bring him back as The Vulture in Spider-Man 4, the filmmakers agreed it was a good idea. Adil joked, "We're going to bring Michael Keaton in everything now."
The MCU's Peter Parker first squared off with Adrian Toomes/The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The villain, who had a grudge against Iron Man, figured out Spidey's secret identity and pushed the wall-crawler to his limit before ultimately being defeated.
Last November, it was reported that Michael Keaton is being lined up to return as The Vulture in Spider-Man 4 (he'd been eyed for a role in Spider-Man: No Way Home but was cut for reasons which still aren't entirely clear).
The Vulture's possible MCU return comes as a surprise seeing as Morbius featured his bizarre and unexpected arrival in the "Spider-Verse" that Venom calls home. Stranded on the wrong planet, The Vulture was freed from captivity, rebuilt his suit, and decided to recruit Morbius to a seemingly heroic team.
The sequence was ridiculed by fans and the rumour suggests the idea - or Toomes' role in it, at least - has been scrapped. When we last saw Toomes in the MCU, he was behind bars and seemingly accepting of his fate.
Mac Gargan, a crook injured during an altercation with Spidey, suggested he was going to force The Vulture to reveal who is beneath the hero's mask. Needless to say, Marvel Studios can just retcon Morbius if the plan, regardless of who directs, is for Toomes to return.
As always, stay tuned for updates.