When Marvel Studios enlisted Jon Watts to direct Spider-Man: Homecoming, he was a relative unknown. The filmmaker had helmed the low-budget Clown and Cop Car, but neither of those necessarily suggested he was a good fit to bring the wall-crawler into the MCU.
Like Sam Raimi and Marc Webb before him, Watts proved his detractors wrong by delivering a movie which scored glowing reviews and a spectacular $880.2 million at the worldwide box office.
Spider-Man: Far From Home followed two years later and earned over $1.1 billion, and when Spider-Man: No Way Home eventually swung into theaters, it grossed a jaw-dropping $1.9 billion (like Homecoming, both movies were praised by fans and critics alike).
After devoting several years of his life to Spider-Man, Watts decided he needed a break from the MCU and gave up the chance to next take charge of The Fantastic Four. He's since shifted focus to upcoming Star Wars TV series, Skeleton Crew, and a new director will be brought on board for Spider-Man 4.
Talking to Collider, Watts was asked to share his advice for whoever follows in his footsteps.
"I have a very practical bit of Spider-Man advice, and I think every Spider-Man director goes through it," he started. "It doesn't look good when someone is just swinging on a rope. You think you're gonna go in there, you're like, 'We're gonna do it all practical. We're gonna get a stuntman. We're gonna be swinging around.'"
"It's boring. It looks dumb. It looks like a monkey swinging on a vine when you put someone on just a rope. Don't waste your time. That's my advice to the next Spider-Man director."
It's actually a very interesting piece of advice because that approach is the one Webb took in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man. There's one scene in the movie with practical swinging and, yes, it does indeed stick out like a sore thumb (and was abandoned for CG web-swining sequences when the sequel rolled around).
Alongside Tom Holland, Zendaya is expected to reprise her role as MJ. Sydney Sweeny is rumoured to be playing Black Cat, while Scorpion and even the Spider-Slayers are all said to have been considered as Spider-Man 4's villains. Right now, The Kingpin sounds like a dead cert if social media's scoopers are to be believed.
The movie doesn't have a release date, though we're expecting it to arrive in theaters next year. Holland's Peter is also expected to be a major player in the next Avengers movies, with it previously reported that the wall-crawler is going to be the lead character in Avengers 5.