Marvel’s Tangled Timeline Delaying Spider-Man 4?

Regarding the production of Spider-Man 4, Holland said what many fans have been thinking: “one of the things is that, with Marvel, your film is a small cog in a large machine.” It’s not enough, then, to simply craft a compelling movie. Instead, the director needs to deliver a movie that can stand on its own merits while picking up on earlier strands of MCU plot points and laying the groundwork for future films’ development.

That can be difficult for many reasons, including the fact that Spider-Man 4 doesn’t yet have a director firmly attached to the project. Earlier this year, it was reported that Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Crettin was in early talks to direct the film. While he would likely do a great job (Shang-Chi notably has a 91 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes), Crettin has not yet been confirmed as director, and some longtime are concerned about a fourth entry being directed by anyone other than Jon Watts, who has directed all of Holland’s previous solo outings as Spider-Man.

With that being said, Holland himself is reassuring fans that the Spider-Man 4 cast and crew will overcome any challenges facing them. Regarding balancing production schedules with the aforementioned constraints of the Marvel timeline, the actor is optimistic: “the time in which we need to get that done is a tall order but definitely achievable with the people we have working on it now.”

According to Holland, other reasons to be excited for Spider-Man 4 is the story: “we have a creative and we pitch and a draft, which is excellent.” He admitted that “it needs work” but was quick to add that “the writers are doing a great job.” Plus, the script has the personal approval of both Holland and his onscreen and offscreen girlfriend, Zendaya.

Holland said that he and Zendaya “sat down and read it together” three weeks ago and that it made his spider-sense tingle: “it really lit a fire in me.” Zendaya  was similarly excited, and Holland said “we at times were bouncing around the living room.” The cause of their excitement was that “this is a real movie worthy of fans’ respect.”

Such comments are obviously light on major details, but they are certainly enough to give us hope. While other MCU franchises have faltered, the Spider-Man movies have been consistently great. Now, it sounds like the fourth entry is equally destined to impress us, especially with the high praise from its two chief stars.

Obviously, Tom Holland and Zendaya are likely to be biased, and we doubt they’d say anything to upset their employer (not counting all those times Holland accidentally leaked info, that is). But if we take these talented actors at face value, it sounds like Spider-Man 4 is off to a great start and will hopefully deliver a story so good that we can forget about high-profile failures like Eternals and The Marvels. 

And if the story is good enough, we honestly couldn’t give a flying pumpkin bomb about how well it does (or doesn’t) line up with Marvel’s increasingly tangled mythology, especially if it means we get something as entertaining as Deadpool & Wolverine. And if we all cross our fingers really hard, maybe we can finally see Deadpool and Holland’s Spider-Man team up on the big screen together.