With 2024 slowly drawing to a close, it sure looks like another year will pass without Sony and Marvel announcing the Spider-Man 4 release date. Given the most recent rounds of rumors, it’s not like we were expecting any.
After Tom Holland confirmed that Spider-Man 4 will start shooting next year, we heard of his complex schedule for 2025. He and Zendaya will shoot Christopher Nolan’s mysterious star-studded next year, and that movie has a 2026 release date.
Spider-Man 4 was expected in theaters around the same time, but Sony and Marvel reportedly moved it to the Christmas 2026 period. This still preserves Spider-Man 4’s key spot in the MCU chronology. According to reports, the movie has to sit between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
That development indicates Sony and Marvel have extra time to prepare the film’s announcement event. Shooting is now said to start in the second half of next year.
While longtime Spider-Man producer and former head of Sony Amy Pascal did not share details about the sequel’s release, she teased what Spider-Man 4 will be about. Is that enough to tell us in which direction Sony and Marvel are going with the script? Not exactly, but it’s exciting nonetheless. Some spoilers will follow below.
Pascal talked to Deadline about her various projects as a producer, and Spider-Man 4 came up. She couldn’t have avoided the topic because she’s been instrumental in bringing the character rights to Sony and has worked on all the Spider-Man movies and animated features.
She praised Spider-Man 4’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton, who will replace Jon Watts. Pascal also acknowledged the latter for his filmmaker skills that got him the Spider-Man trilogy director job.
Pascal also noted that Tom Holland is returning, but of course, we all knew that. She and Kevin Feige said that would be the case way back when No Way Home was still playing in theaters. Spider-Man 4 has been in the making ever since, with the expectation that Tom Holland would return.
The most interesting Spider-Man 4 tidbit in Deadline’s interview concerns the story. That’s where Pascal explained how Sony and Marvel are tackling the next Spidey installment after what happened in No Way Home. The angle seems to be on Peter Parker being Spider-Man first and foremost:
Well, we have to deal with the fact that he decided he was going to give up being Peter Parker, and he was going to focus on being Spider-Man because being Peter Parker was too hard. So that’s what the movie’s about… There’s room to grow.
Rumors earlier this year claimed that Sony and Marvel had different visions for Spider-Man 4. Sony reportedly wanted it to be a multiverse story as big as No Way Home, with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield possibly appearing again. Marvel wanted a more grounded story that focused more on Peter’s life after the events of No Way Home.
Some of the most recent Spider-Man 4 plot leaks say Sony might have had its way. Spider-Man 4 might feature Venom (Tom Hardy) in some capacity. It might have Andrew Garfield and Robert Downey Jr. cameos.
Let’s also remember that some rumors say Spider-Man will be a key Avengers leader in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Pascal’s comments seem to reinforce the idea that Peter Parker will focus on being Spider-Man, which is exciting. After all, Peter lost all the technological advantage Spider-Man had so far, and he’s on his own, without any supersuit assistance.
While I’m not necessarily sold on the idea that Peter wants to give up being Peter, Pascal makes a point that’s also worth exploring. Peter hasn’t given up his identity or self as much as he wanted to save his loved ones who are still alive from backlash for their connections to Peter Parker.
Then again, Peter lost everything in No Way Home. Even without the spell, this is a different Peter than the one we saw in the past. And that’s an exciting aspect to explore.
The great thing about Pascal’s Spider-Man 4 story teaser is that it’s very limited in scope and rather unrevealing. Sony and Marvel have a lot of room to maneuver here. Hopefully, the story will be good enough for both the character and the larger MCU story.
