Could the director of the original Spider-Man trilogy return to helm the sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home?
Sony/Marvel have yet to make an official announcement regarding Spider-Man 4 (as in, the fourth solo movie featuring Tom Holland's take on the wall-crawler), but we know the project is in development, and we now have some more names to add to the list of filmmakers that might be in the mix to take over from Jon Watts.
According to World Of Reel, Sam Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) is in contention to direct the next Spider-Man movie, and the site has also heard that John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night, Dungeons & Dragons) and Jon Favreau (Iron Man) may be possibilities.
Some fans were hoping Raimi would return to direct a follow-up to his Spider-Man 3 starring Tobey Maguire, so if there is any truth to this and he does sign on, it'll be interesting to see how the news will be received.
Justin Lin - who helmed five of the Fast and Furious movies as well as Star Trek Beyond - and Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) were previously mentioned as possible contenders, but they have both boarded other projects since.
Sony's Tom Rothman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige are rumored 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-scale 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, be back as the MCU's Spidey, but the actor is believed to be "growing wary" of playing the iconic hero, so this could be his final time in the red and blue suit.
No Way Home scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are currently working on the script, but we still don't know which of the Wall-Crawler's fearsome foes will be causing problems for Peter and co. Most of Spidey's major bad guys have already been utilized in previous films (Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, etc), but a recent rumor claimed that the still untitled sequel will feature a villain we haven't seen in live-action yet.
What do you make of this rumor? Would you like to see Sam Raimi step behind the camera for Spider-Man 4 - but not his Spider-Man 4? Drop us a comment down below.