It's a little hard to believe that Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios still haven't officially confirmed that a fourth Spider-Man movie is on the way when you consider the amount of rumors that have been doing the rounds over the past year or so. Fans were hoping for some updates at SDCC, but it can be easy to forget that any Spidey news would come from the Sony camp first, so a big Hall H announcement was always unlikely.
We should hear something fairly soon, but for now - you guessed it - we have some more rumors!
According to Daniel Richtman, production is indeed scheduled to get underway next year, and he reckons the movie should arrive in theaters in July of 2026 - between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Richtman feels that this is a good indication that Spider-Man 4 will be another Multiverse movie.
We've heard conflicting reports in that regard, but if accurate, it sounds like Sony's Tom Rothman got his way!
Previous rumors have claimed that Rothman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige 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.
If we're speculating, we'd say Garfield and Maguire would be more likely to return for Secret Wars, but that doesn't mean this next solo Spidey movie won't lay the groundwork.
No Way Home director Jon Watts will not return to helm the next film. Several filmmakers have been rumored to be in talks to take over, including Justin Lin (Fast & Furious), Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Ms. Marvel, Batgirl).
Holland will, of course, be back 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.