Next 'Spider-Man' Movie Gets Destin Daniel Cretton To Direct, 2026 Release Date
Next 'Spider-Man' Movie Gets Destin Daniel Cretton To Direct, 2026 Release Date
It’s also time to face my last lingering thread from SDCC: The return of the Russo Brothers to direct the new Avengers movies, and its very special villain
Just as Venom completed their trilogy, Sony and Tom Holland are ready to start his second as Spider-Man. The fourth Spider-Man film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has its script, its director in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’s Destin Daniel Cretton, and a release date: July 24, 2026.
That weekend is anticipated to be quite the reaper for Marvel Studios, having seen Deadpool & Wolverine become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time by starting there this year (July 26), and placed The Fantastic Four: First Steps there on July 25 next year. As far as current competition, it will currently be the second weekend of a Universal event film and precede the opening of Paw Patrol 3.
Holland has been more eagerly talking about being back thanks to recent appearances on the Rich Roll Podcast and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. About the script, which is once again from Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, he said on the former “It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job.” continuing “One of the things is that, with Marvel, your film is a small cog in a large machine,” He further elaborated. “That machine has got to keep running. You have to make sure you can fit into that timeline at the right time to benefit the bigger picture. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing. 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. We have a creative and we have a pitch and a draft, which is excellent,” Holland said. “It needs work, but the writers are doing a great job. I read it three weeks ago and it really lit a fire in me. Zendaya and I sat down and read it together and we at times were bouncing around the living room like this is a real movie worthy of the fans’ respect.” Zendaya, his current girlfriend played the classmate-turned-girlfriend MJ in the first trilogy, and the filmmakers are looking to bring her aboard the new film. On the latter, he revealed when shooting will start, saying “Next summer, we start shooting. Everything’s good to go. We’re nearly there.” Holland then called it “super exciting.”
Cretton’s hiring was first reported in September, and he takes over from Jon Watts’s directing of the first trilogy that consists of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2019’s Far From Home, and 2021’s No Way Home, earning about $3.8 billion at the box office. The commitments right now are only to the one film, and while as things are no one knows who Peter Parker is and thus he must build his life fresh and lends to a new supporting cast, though current circumstances have yet to be revealed. The Shang-Chi director returns to having an announced film on the Marvel Studios slate ten months after departing what was then Avengers: Kang Dynasty when it was looking like it wasn’t going to have a Kang Dynasty much longer. While picking up the directing gig for a live-action Naruto movie, he’d also stayed working on the MCU Wonder Man series for Disney+ starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, which took pretty long to be officially acknowledged. And yes indeed, the Kang Dynasty fell, but what rose from its ashes?
About a week and a half before San Diego Comic-Con, it was reported that Joe and Anthony Russo, the Russo Brothers who had helmed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, were in talks to return for the fifth and sixth Avengers films, the latter of which is still Secret Wars releasing on May 7, 2027. The former, still releasing on May 1, 2026 is now Avengers: Doomsday, officially heralding Doctor Doom into the MCU. This was confirmed during the studio’s Hall H SDCC panel, and the entire Avengers part was basically the biggest news drop of the whole thing. Of course this reinforces the Fantastic Four’s appearance in both films. Doomsday’s May 2026 release means the fourth Spider-Man film is positioned similarly to Far From Home coming in the July after Endgame. But who’s playing Doom? It’s Robert Downey Jr., also returning to the franchise after Tony Stark aka Iron Man died in Endgame and winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer. And it was a glorious return announcement. “We miss you guys,” Joe said, while Anthony remarked “that four movie run was incredible, and it left us with our emotions spent. We came to see a road forward with you all.”
According to a deeper look by Variety, the Russos are being paid $80 million to direct and “significantly more” for Downey to play Doom. The Russos’ deal doesn’t have back-end compensation, but does performance escalators that activate at the $750 million and $1 billion gross milestones, though the figures are disputed. Their AGBO production company will be producing both films, and partnerships like that aren’t typical for Marvel Studios films where they are primary. Downey has perks that include private jet travel, dedicated security and a whole “trailer encampment”, and would return if the Russos did. One executive called it “a perfect combination of timing and everyone being on the same page.”
Downey’s casting was also brought up on Holland’s appearance on the Rich Roll podcast, saying they’ve been talking a lot “especially about him making his [Marvel] return, which is super exciting. That was a tough secret to sit on because I have a reputation for ruining things and I strategically have done no press.”
As for Watts, he, his production company Freshman Year and his wife, producer Dianne McGunigle signed a first-look feature deal with Walt Disney Studios around the time Cretton signed on for Spidey. The deal will see Watts direct for Disney live action and 20th Century Studios with the option to produce.
Sources: Variety (1, 2, 3), Deadline (1, 2, 3, 4), The Hollywood Reporter