Tom Holland has gained a bit of a reputation for revealing a little too much about his upcoming Spider-Man/MCU movies during interviews, to the point that it's now become a running joke. Even so, when the actor mentions a "secret" project, his fans are going to pay attention.
Holland shared a new behind-the-scenes photo to social media with the caption "secret shoot day."
This is highly unlikely to be Spider-Man 4 (the movie isn't scheduled to enter production until next year and doesn't even have a director attached), but there's some speculation that it could be for something else Spidey-related.
Venom: The Last Dance is also a long shot (the threequel comes out next month), but what about Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse? Holland was rumored to make an appearance in the previous film, Across the Spider-Verse, and reports indicate that there were early plans for his take on Peter Parker to feature before a scheduling conflict got in the way.
Honestly, we'd say this is something else entirely. Holland was recently spotted in LA with a very non Parker-esque haircut, and appears to be sporting the same or a very similar look in this shot.
Previous rumors have claimed that Sony's Tom Rothman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige have had some disagreements when it comes to the overall plot of Spider-Man 4, 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 Avengers: 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.