Jon Watts Exits as Director of Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR Movie

Jon Watts, director of the Marvel Spider-Man “Home” trilogy, has stepped down from directing the upcoming Marvel film, Fantastic Four. MCU President Kevin Feige first announced that Watts would direct the Fantastic Four reboot for Marvel Studios in December 2020 during the Disney Investor Day presentation.

Both Watts and Marvel confirmed his exit, and said that it is amicable.

Watts released a statement about his departure, saying:

“Making three Spider-Man films was an incredible and life changing experience for me. I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for seven years. I’m hopeful we’ll work together again and I can’t wait to see the amazing vision for Fantastic Four brought to life.”

As for his future in the Spider-Man universe, Deadline confirmed that Sony and its Spider-Man producers have made it clear they expect to reunite Watts with Holland ad Zendaya to continue the series.

Feige and Louis D’Esposito, co-president, Marvel Studios said of Watts:

“Collaborating with Jon on the Spider-Man films has been a true pleasure. We were looking forward to continuing our work with him to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU but understand and are supportive of his reasons for stepping away. We are optimistic that we will have the opportunity to work together again at some point down the road.”

It sounds like the director is just burnt out, and with the list of other titles he has on his plate, it sounds like he just needed one less project at this time. The studio has yet to announce any release date information about the film, let alone who is writing it, and now we need a new director, so we are back at square one. But I am confident that they will find someone just as capable to lead us into the Fantastic Four storyline. Who would you like to see take the director’s chair?