Jon Watts only had two indie films under his name before directing the big-budget Spider-Man flicks for the MCU. He gave one of the most significant post-Endgame MCU releases with Spider-Man: No Way Home. The Tom Holland film almost collected $2 billion worldwide. But, despite such success, the director denied leading Spider-Man 4 due to a major creative reason.
After the success of No Way Home, Jon Watts was eyed to helm Spider-Man 4 as well as The Fantastic Four. But soon, the director announced his exit from both projects and asserted that he wanted to do something on his own, outside Marvel. As a result, Watts went on to make the film, Wolfs for Apple TV+.
Jon Watts was tired of working under the Marvel umbrella
For years, several directors have made it clear that there is a set of strict rules to be followed for leading an MCU project. Often directors complain of not getting much creative freedom in working for a cinematic universe. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Jon Watts claimed that making Wolfs with George Clooney and Brad Pitt was a welcoming change for him.
Jon Watts has explained that he chose to make Wolfs instead of going with Spider-Man 4 as he loves Christopher Nolan‘s approach to shooting all the scenes himself. Due to the extensive workload, Marvel Studios always splits its work among several units. The director strongly disliked this rule and wanted to fully contribute to his films.
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.’
The Cop Car filmmaker also added that even though he implemented his creative decisions in MCU’s Spider-Man Home trilogy, he could never call the project his own. He asserted that Wolfs let him independently incorporate his vision and style into the film, unlike the Marvel Studios films.
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.
It is undeniable that Spider-Man trilogy’s fame was instrumental in Jon Watts’ career. Nevertheless, every director also wants to create something fully original. For Jon Watts, No Way Home was the perfect conclusion to his MCU journey so that he could go forward to work on more original content instead of a fourth Tom Holland film.
Jon Watts’ Wolfs will not be limited to a single project
The promotional materials of Wolfs raised a massive buzz on social media for reuniting two of the top Hollywood stars, Brad Pitt and George Clooney in an action-comedy background. Both stars shared an incredible chemistry in the Ocean’s film series and the fans are excited to see how Jon Watts presents them.
Wolfs focuses on Pitt and Clooney as two professional fixers, forced to carry out the same mission. The Mr. & Mrs. Smith-esque narrative was enough to make the fans hyped up for the project and the studio to announce a sequel. Deadline has reported that Jon Watts would also return to write and direct the second installment of the film.
The film is slated to get a premiere out of the competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. Following that, Wolfs is also announced to get a limited theatrical release before hitting Apple TV+. Although initially it was planned to get an extended theatrical window, back-to-back disappointing results of many Apple Original Films led the makers to go the other way.
Wolfs will be released in theaters for one week on September 20, 2024, before hitting Apple TV+ on September 27, 2024.
