Jon Watts in Talks to Direct Spider-Man: Homecoming 3

Jon Watts has entered talks to direct Spider-Man: Homecoming 3. Marvel Studios and Sony struck an unprecedented agreement to share the Spider-Man film rights a few years ago, paving the way to Tom Holland playing the web-slinger in 2016's Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up, Captain America: Civil War. Holland's Peter Parker would go on to star in his first solo movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, a year later, before reuniting with his fellow MCU heroes for Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and then Avengers: Endgame a year after. He then embarked upon another solo adventure with July's Spider-Man: Far From Home, which ended with a tantalizing tease of what's to come in Homecoming 3.

Then, the unexpected happen. Sony and Marvel were unable to agree on a new Spider-Man deal in August and ended their partnership, meaning that Holland's Spider-Man would no longer be part of the MCU. Fans have been wrestling with the fallout of this schism for the past month, even as Sony and Marvel Studios executives issued statement after statement to prepare them for Spidey's non-MCU future. However, that's all in the past now. As of today, the studios have hammered out a fresh agreement and are moving full speed ahead with Homecoming 3, which will hit theaters in July 2021.

To no one's surprise, Deadline is reporting that Watts will, in fact, be back to direct Homecoming 3, now that the film is once again part of the MCU. The director's return was up in the air after Spidey left the franchise last month but, as of right now, his deal has been all but finalized.

While, again, it's not exactly shocking that Watts is coming back for Homecoming 3, it's welcome news al the same. The director ended Far From Home on quite the cliffhanger, as the film's mid-credits scene showed Peter Parker's secret identity being exposed to the world by none other than The Daily Bugle's J. Jonah Jameson (with J.K. Simmons reprising his beloved role from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, in another surprising twist). It would've been a real shame if he didn't get to come back and resolve the plot point in the next Spider-Man movie, especially in light of the great job he did on both Homecoming and Far From Home. Fortunately, that won't happen, and Watts will be back in the saddle and filming Homecoming 3 when production begins next year.

Joining Watts behind the camera on Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 are writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who also collaborated with him on Homecoming and Far From Home. Holland, of course, will also be returning as Peter Parker and took to Instagram today to express his joy about Spider-Man staying with the MCU via a fun pop culture reference, with his costar Zendaya similarly taking to Twitter to express her joy. All in all, it seems this past month of Spider-Man news was ultimately much ado about nothing (or little more than Sony and Marvel continuing their negotiations in public - you decide), and all's well on the Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 front again.

NEXT: Jacob Batalon Responds to Spider-Man's Return to the MCU

Source: Deadline