Jon Watts Reveals Why He Walked Away From MCU by Gushing About His Upcoming Movie: “Wolfs is mine, and that’s a really good feeling”

Largely due to the Spider-Man’s ‘Home’ trilogy, Jon Watts was one of the most important directors in the MCU, being credited for some of the highest-grossing and successful movies in the franchise.

Watts brought a youthful, high school-centric tone to the ‘Spider-Man’ films, which differentiated them from other superhero movies. This approach paid off well with both critics and audiences. With ‘No Way Home’ he had a gargantuan task of having Spidey join the Multiverse and thrive in it, and boy did he do it well.

Now Watts was also approached to handle the upcoming ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ but the director eventually decided to walk away not only from ‘Fantastic Four’ but from ‘Spider-Man’ franchise as well. The upcoming ‘Spider-Man 4’ is currently looking for a director while Jon Watts is focusing on his upcoming movie ‘Wolfs’ a story about two “fixers” starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Watts recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and indirectly revealed why he left the MCU and why ‘Wolfs’ is so much better fit for him. After the success of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ Watts felt a strong urge to return to more personal and original projects. The superhero genre, particularly within the MCU, often involves working within a large, interconnected framework with many creative constraints.

Watts wanted to explore new ideas and showcase his own voice and style, which led him to develop After the success of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ Watts felt a strong urge to return to more personal and original projects. The superhero genre, particularly within the MCU, often involves working within a large, interconnected framework with many creative constraints. Watts wanted to explore new ideas and showcase his own voice and style, which led him to develop ‘Wolfs,’ an original action-comedy film. an original action-comedy film.

Sometimes you do an action movie, and all the fun action stuff is given to the second-unit director. On the Marvel movies, you split up the work because there’s so much to be done. Rarely do you get the Christopher Nolan opportunity to do all of it. On this one, I was like, ‘I want to shoot every single shot.’

Dede Gardner, producer behind the movie explains that Watts wanted to be involved in every aspect of the movie:

It’s the only time in my life where you hear a logline and then he says what he’s going to write and then he writes it. Then he goes and shoots it, then he goes and cuts it, and then he goes and delivers it. It was just the most straight line.

Watts also explained that no matter how much he loves Spider-Man’s ‘Home’ trilogy it’s never going to be truly his, ‘Wolfs’ offers him the opportunity to have something that is truly his own:

I was just getting started and Marvel came along — and I take full creative ownership over all those films — but Spider-Man is always going to be Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s creation, this was the chance for me to go back to my voice and my vision and my style. Wolfs is mine, and that’s a really good feeling.

The success of ‘No Way Home’ is also too massive to replicate and it’s likely never going to be done again, at least if Watts is concerned:

That was such a specific moment in time, and the reaction to that movie was just so unbelievable. It’s never going to be like this, ever again.

‘Wolfs’ will premiere out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024. It will have a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on September 20, and will be available on Apple TV+ starting September 27.

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