As Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios continue the search for a director to helm Spider-Man 4 (as in, the fourth solo movie featuring Tom Holland's web-slinger), several names have been rumored to be in contention to land the gig, including Bad Boys For Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
The filmmakers are no strangers to the superhero genre, having previously helmed episodes of Disney+'s Ms. Marvel and Warner Bros.' Batgirl movie - which was infamously scrapped as a tax write-off and will likely never see the light of day.
While speaking to Variety, El Arbi and Fallah were asked about the Spider-Man rumors, and while they didn't confirm whether they've actually had talks with the studios, it sounds like they'd be very happy to board the project - if given the opportunity.
"That’d be cool, if they allow us. If they ask us," said El Arbi. "We love Spider-Man and we love New York," added Fallah.
The directors were also asked about Batgirl. Is there any chance a version of the movie might be released some day?
"We don’t know what’s going to happen," said El Arbi. "As far as we’re concerned, it’s always going to be in some vault somewhere, and you’ve got to just move on and look to the future. But it means a lot that the audience watched this movie and had this reaction and we have their trust. Now, the audience can gauge what we can do or what our talent is, and hopefully that they will be there in the future for our next project."
Rumors aside, we still know very little about how Spider-Man 4 is shaping up. Sony's Tom Rothman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige are believed to have had some disagreements when it comes to the overall plot, with the latter hoping to scale the Multiverse elements back for a smaller story. Rothman, meanwhile, is said to want to capitalize on No Way Home's success by bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back as their respective takes on Peter Parker.
Holland will, of course, return as the MCU's Spidey alongside Zendaya as MJ, but the actor is believed to be "growing wary" of playing the iconic hero, so this could be his final solo outing as the wall-crawler - though he will almost certainly play a part in one of both of the upcoming Avengers films.
"We have the best in the business working toward whatever the story might be," Holland said in a recent interview. "But until we’ve cracked it, we have a legacy to protect," Holland explained. "The third movie was so special in so many ways that we need to make sure we do the right thing."
No Way Home scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are writing the script.