Marvel and Sony’s ‘Spider-Man 4’ Plans Have Jeopardized a Highly Anticipated MCU Sequel

With the Multiverse Saga still skating on thin ice with fans and the studio reworking its slate on the fly, Marvel Studios has shown no hesitation in making big moves to get fans back in theaters. Deadpool & Wolverine‘s record-breaking box office run showed that the studio does still indeed have a pulse but one big hit won’t convince fans they’re back. The return of Anthony and Joe Russo to direct the next two Avengers films with Robert Downey Jr. set to star in them as Victor Von Doom was certainly a fine next step, even if it wasn’t necessarily as well-received at the time as they had hoped.

Nobody doubts that both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will rake in big bucks at the box office but if there’s one other hero that can be counted on to swing in and save the day, it’s Spider-Man. After some stops and starts, Spider-Man 4 seems to be gaining momentum for a 2025 start of production as Marvel Studios vet Destin Daniel Cretton has reportedly signed on to direct. But has Marvel Studios sacrificed the future of one hero to get the Webslinger back on the screen?

The decision to turn to Cretton to helm the next installment of Sony and Marvel Studio’s Spidey franchise isn’t incredibly surprising. Marvel Studios’ Big Cheese, Kevin Feige, clearly has faith in Cretton’s ability to lead a major project such as Spider-Man 4. Cretton was the studio’s original choice to direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty but as the studio’s vision of the future of the Multiverse Saga evolved, Cretton stepped away. The Kang Dynasty became Doomsday and Cretton went to work on the streaming series Wonder Man and his sequel to 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. And as recently as August 2024, it sounded as though things were progressing nicely on that front according to star Simu Liu. “A lot of it is above my pay grade but it’s definitely happening,” Liu told Press Trust of India. However, the news that Cretton will be sliding into the director’s chair for Spider-Man 4 may change all of that.

Once believed to be an integral part of the Multiverse Saga, Shang-Chi may have been unceremoniously pushed out of the spotlight when Marvel Studios pivoted from Kang to Doctor Doom and Cretton‘s new gig may be the final nail in that coffin. Cretton’s decision to sign on for Spider-Man 4, while understandable on any and every level, pushes Shang-Chi 2 quite a way down the road and almost certainly into 2027 AT BEST.

As rightfully concerned as Disney has been and may remain about the trajectory of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga plans, derailing the sequel to one of the Saga’s most well-received films must be called into question, even when it’s done to get Spider-Man 4 into the good and trusted hands of Cretton. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stands as one of the studio’s most complete films in the past several years and provided Liu with an opportunity to break out which he has certainly done. As talented as Cretton is, there’s no shortage of other talented directors capable of shepherding the next Spidey film to the screen. Clearly Marvel Studios has MAJOR plans for Spider-Man 4; however, the fact that those plans will come to fruition at the expense of one of the MCU’s more exciting new characters is incredibly unfortunate and something that, for now, we’ll just have to hope the studio remedies.