Spider-Man 4 announcement sparks concern over another MCU sequel

A much-awaited sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be in peril following the announcement of the next Spider-Man, due to the fact that both projects share a director.

As noted by The Direct’s Daniel Thompson, the fourth instalment of Marvel and Disney’s (and, yeah, Sony’s) Spider-Man franchise finally has its director: Destin Daniel Cretton.

Cretton is a well-accomplished director, having worked on critically lauded films such as Short Term 12 (an absolute banger of a film if you’ve never watched it by the way) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings… and herein lies the problem.

As Thompson explains, Cretton is seemingly a little oversubscribed as far as directorial duties are currently concerned.

Some have assumed that the director might not have enough time on his hands to direct the next Spider-Man film and the upcoming Wonder Man TV show for DC alongside working on the sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

This also follows Cretton being taken off of directorial duties for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, as that film has been scrapped in favour of the new Avengers film Avengers: Doomsday (which will be directed by the Russo Brothers instead).

Although Cretton has previously specified that both he and Shang-Chi’s star Simu Liu would be returning for the sequel, this directorial shift has left many to assume that someone else might be taking on the sequel instead.

It also doesn’t help that Shang-Chi 2 wasn’t mentioned at all during the last San Diego Comic Con, which implied to many that the sequel isn’t currently being worked on.

However, the fact that the sequel has no specified release date does imply (at least to me) that it is quite far into the future… which is bad in the sense that Shang-Chi fans will have to wait a while for it to release, but good in the sense that Cretton can hopefully return (provided his work on Spider-Man 4 doesn’t run parallel with the Shang Chi sequel).

We might have to wait until the next SDCC event in 2025 to get the definitive answer, unfortunately.