Spider-Man: No Way Home director exits Fantastic Four movie

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most successful movie empire in the history of cinema, but some Marvel icons have been left out. For years, Fox has held the screen rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. While the mutants have had some respectable big screen outings, Marvel’s first family hasn’t fared as well, with a couple 2000s-era films doing alright before a gritty 2015 reboot bombed out of the gate.

But Disney, flush with Marvel cash, up and bought Fox a few years back, so now the Fantastic Four can be integrated into the MCU proper. And a film is in development, but there’s been a snag: according to Deadline, director Jon Watts has dropped out.

Normally this wouldn’t be that big a story — we don’t know anything about the film yet, and stuff can shift behind the scenes — but Watts is a Marvel celebrity on account of directing the last three Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland, which have made Disney and Sony billions of dollars. He was as close to a sure thing as you get in the movie business, and now he’s off the project.

Jon Watts needs a break from superheroes, backs out of Fantastic Four movie

That said, apparently the split was amicable on all sides; Watts just needed a break after nearly a decade of directing superhero movies, which is fair enough. “Collaborating with Jon on the Spider-Man films has been a true pleasure,” Marvel execs Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito said in a joint statement. “We were looking forward to continuing our work with him to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU but understand and are supportive of his reasons for stepping away. We are optimistic that we will have the opportunity to work together again at some point down the road.”

Watts put out a statement, too: “Making three Spider-Man films was an incredible and life-changing experience for me. I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for seven years. I’m hopeful we’ll work together again and I can’t wait to see the amazing vision for Fantastic Four brought to life.”

Watts’ next project may be an Apple TV+ movie starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as rival “fixers” who are hired for the same job, but it doesn’t involve superheroes so I don’t know if we have to care about it. Is it even a movie at that point?

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