Jon Watts is definitely one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s more successful filmmakers, having directed the first three Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies. He certainly left off on a high note with the Web-Slinger considering Spider-Man: No Way Home’s positive critical reception and making nearly $2 billion worldwide, and there was a time when he was going to follow that up with next month’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, he ultimately dropped out of directing the upcoming Marvel movie for a pretty relatable reason: COVID.
No, Watts didn’t exit the reboot because he contracted COVID. While speaking to Collider’s Steve Weintraub at the Mediterrane Film Festival (via THR), he explained that he felt drained after having to go through so many extra COVID protocol hoops while shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home during the rougher days of the pandemic. The director recalled:
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 postproduction 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.
Making a movie isn’t easy, and certainly not ones on the scale that Marvel Studios delivers to the masses. There’s no question, however, that Spider-Man: No Way Home was on an entirely different level than its predecessors, Homecoming and Far From Home, given how it not only incorporated characters from both of the previous Spider-Man film series, but also Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange. And then on top of all that, Jon Watts and his team had to implement these COVID protocols in order to keep people safe on set.
Obviously these were necessary precautions and the movie shouldn’t have been made without them, but by the time all was said and done, Watts was exhausted. So despite having signed on to helm The Fantastic Four: First Steps shortly before No Way Home was released, by April 2022, he stepped away from the gig. That’s because he came to the following realization:
I am out of gas. The COVID layer on top of making a giant movie layer, I knew I didn’t have what it would’ve taken to make that movie great. I was just out of steam, so I just needed to take some time to recover. Everyone at Marvel totally understood. They had been through it with me as well, so they knew how hard and draining that experience has been; in the end, very satisfying, but at some point, if you can’t do it at the level that you feel like you need to for it to be great, then it’s better to not do it.
At the end of August 2022, WandaVision’s Matt Shakman was tapped to replace Jon Watts on the new Fantastic Four movie, which required his own exit from the long-awaited Star Trek 4. Watts ultimately followed up Spider-Man: No Way Home with the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led movie Wolfs, which was supposed to get a sequel, but it was scrapped after Watts got into a disagreement with Apple. He also created the Star Wars TV series Skeleton Crew.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps comes out on July 25, and Jon Watts admitted during the event that it’ll be a “totally surreal experience” for him to see the movie. Watts also won’t be overseeing Peter Parker’s next MCU adventure, as Destin Daniel Cretton is helming 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. He did, however, produce and craft the story for Final Destination: Bloodlines, which is still playing in theaters.
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