Highlights
- Spider-Man 4's development and release may face significant delays due to the end of the strikes by the Writers Guild of America, potentially pushing production to late 2024 or even later.
- Tom Holland's contract for Spider-Man 4 has not been signed yet, but it is unlikely that he will be recast after the success of the Holland-led trilogy and his integration into the MCU.
- The delay in Spider-Man 4 may actually benefit the film by allowing it to have its own space and not be compared too closely to the highly successful Spider-Man: No Way Home, while also allowing for more creative freedom in crafting an MCU-aligned story.
Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4 might finally be able to return to the writers' room now that the WGA strike is over. However, fans must wait much longer for the film to go into production and be ready for release.
Holland's Spider-Man trilogy is a joint effort between Sony, Marvel Studios, and Columbia. The film series features several popular actors, including Zendaya, Gweneth Paltrow, Micheal Keaton, and more. Hollywood star Holland portrays the main character, who also starred in the live-action adaptation of Uncharted, a popular video game that Holland started playing while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. After concluding the overarching story started in Homecoming throughout two more films, Spider-Man 4 talk began circulating before the WGA strike brought the industry to a halt.
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While Kevin Feige confirmed a set story for Spider-Man 4 was already drawn up, the wait for the film’s development and release will be quite the trial for fans. According to trusted source Daniel Richtman, the timeline of events indicates a late 2024 start to production on the project at the earliest, with an even longer potential wait if the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike isn’t resolved promptly. The holdup on finalizing a screenplay, casting, and preliminary preparations could mean that the fourth entry in Holland's stint as Spider-Man might not hit the theaters until sometime in 2026, a 5-year gap between the last entry and the next.
It was still in the news cycle as of July 2022 that Holland hadn’t signed on for a Spider-Man 4, a state of affairs that’s almost guaranteed to have not changed due to the ongoing strike action that precludes such activity. While the role can be recast, that’s a tall order after the overwhelming success of the Holland-led trilogy and the web-slinger's integration into the MCU. How the character might feature in future MCU projects will go a long way to determine what sort of stories can unfold in a potential second trilogy of films featuring Holland. All signs seem to point to the valued star signing on for more films as he alluded to before the strike kicked off, alongside co-star Zendaya and more talented names.
While the wait for Spider-Man 4 might be a daunting proposition for the wall-crawler’s adoring fanbase, it could be best that the film is given room to breathe instead of matching up too closely to the phenomenal Spider-Man: No Way Home. Furthermore, it’s wise that Sony kept Spider-Man out of their villain spinoffs, as it gave the creatives more freedom to craft an MCU-aligned story without explaining away less fitting additions like Morbius and Venom. How things will ultimately play out post-strike must be seen in due time.
Spider-Man 4 is in development at Marvel Studios.
Source: Daniel Richtman