Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4 Has A Director & He's Familiar To Marvel Fans

At long last, "Spider-Man 4" is moving forward. The long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel has found its director, but it won't be Jon Watts this time around, who helmed all three of Tom Holland's previous solo adventures. Instead, a new director will bring some new life to the franchise behind-the-camera. He may be new to directing Spider-Man, but this is a filmmaker Marvel fans are familiar with.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Destin Daniel Cretton has been tapped to direct the currently untitled fourth "Spider-Man" film, with Holland expected to return as Peter Parker. Cretton is known best as the director of 2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which is considered one of the better MCU films to come out in the post-"Avengers: Endgame" era. Plot details are being kept under wraps for the time being. Interestingly, Cretton had previously been eyed to direct "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" before that project morphed into "Avengers: Doomsday."

Cretton appears to be well-liked at Marvel Studios. Aside from "Shang-Chi" and nearly directing an "Avengers" movie, he also has the "Wonder Man" series for Disney+ in the works as we speak. The fact that he's now taking over "Spider-Man" suggests good things about that show. At the very least, nearly three years after "No Way Home" shattered records to become one of the biggest movies in history, a sequel is finally gaining some traction.

"No Way Home" ended up pulling in more than $1.9 billion at the global box office after hitting theaters in December 2021. It remains the seventh-biggest movie in history. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who worked on Holland's previous "Spider-Man" outings, are returning to pen the script. Things seem to be moving rather quickly as production is expected to begin in early 2025. That means we'd most likely see the film in theaters in summer 2026.

For those who need a refresher, "No Way Home" ended with Doctor Strange erasing all knowledge from the minds of everyone in the world that Peter Parker is actually Spider-Man. This brought Peter back down to Earth and seemingly teed him up to become a more humble, friendly neighborhood hero, rather than one who visits space and battles alongside Earth's mightiest heroes.

The big question now is what might happen with "Shang-Chi 2." It seems like that this will be Cretton's next project and one that will keep him busy for a while. Simu Liu previously said that "Shangi-Chi 2" keeps getting pushed back despite entering development nearly three years ago. Will Marvel find a different director for that sequel? Or will Liu have to wait for Cretton to be done with "Spider-Man" before he can suit up in the MCU again? For now, we're left with more questions than answers.

"Spider-Man 4" does not currently have a release date, but stay tuned.