Having walked away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, Jon Watts will find it “genuinely weird” to watch Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Jon Watts thinks it will be “genuinely weird” for him to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The 44-year-old director helmed the Tom Holland-starring ‘Home’ trilogy and has since let Destin Daniel Cretton, 46, take the reins to the series for its next instalment, and Watts has now admitted it will be strange for him to watch a new Spider-Man movie that he did not make.
When Variety asked Watts if he had spoken with Cretton about Spider-Man: Brand New Day, he said: “We talked a little bit at the very, very beginning, but I’m very close to that franchise, so I just had to step back and let everyone do their job.
“It’s going to be genuinely weird for me going to see that movie for the first time. It’s going to be a really interesting feeling. It’s a passing of the torch and I’m curious to see where it goes.”
Despite leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) behind after 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Watts hasn’t completely closed the door on returning to the superhero genre.
The Star Wars: Skeleton Crew director said: “I’m open to anything and everything. I’m not limiting myself in that way.
“I’m most attracted to original ideas. That’s sort of like the North Star for me – big, original ideas. But there are so many great things already out there that I think you can find a way to make it your own and to make it feel original.”
Even so, Watts insisted he “wouldn’t want to say” which superhero he’d like to tackle.
He explained: “I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of getting a bunch of emails as a producer, saying, ‘Did you see the thing that Jon Watts said about how he wants to do this?’ They’re busy enough as it is.
“My friend Jake Schreier is doing X-Men, though, which is really exciting. I loved the X-Men growing up, but it’s fun to just be a fan on the sidelines again.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will see the return of Holland’s Wall-Crawler, Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson and Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds.
The 2026 film will also feature Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, Michael Mando’s Scorpion and Marvin Jones III’s Tombstone.
Stranger Things star Sadie Sink and The Bear’s Liza Colon-Zayas are also confirmed for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, though both actresses have kept their lips sealed over the characters they will be playing.
Following Spider-Man: No Way Home, Watts signed on to direct The Fantastic Four: First Steps, though the director ultimately exited the project in 2022 – allowing Matt Shakman to take the job.
The Clown filmmaker previously explained he left The Fantastic Four: First Steps because he was “out of gas”.
Speaking on a panel at the Mediterrane Film Festival, he said: “The emotional strain of having to go through all of those COVID protocols while also trying to make something creative while also trying to make sure that your cast and crew were all safe – literally people could’ve died if you did things wrong – that, and the post-production process was very difficult.
“When you’re doing [visual effects work], there’s a whole international component to it where you’re using vendors from all over the world, and the supply chain had been interrupted because of COVID. It was really hard to get effects done in a traditional way.
“By the time No Way Home was done and out, I went in to get back into the story for Fantastic Four. I was like, ‘I am out of gas.’”
Former Spider-Man director Jon Watts says it will be ‘genuinely weird’ to watch Brand New Day
