Director Jon Watts and Tom Holland

(L to R) Director Jon Watts and Tom Holland on the set of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming.'

Chalk up another director stepping away from a franchise in the wake of Justin Lin departing ‘Fast X’. Though in Jon Watts’ case, it A) isn’t in the middle of shooting and B) is simply because he’s ready for a break from the genre he’s worked in for the last few years.

Watts, who directed the last three ‘Spider-Man’ movies for Sony and Marvel, including last year’s huge hit ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, had been scheduled to stay with the MCU for its new iteration of ‘Fantastic Four’.

But now, according to Deadline, Watts is stepping away from Marvel’s First Family.

“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,” say Marvel boss Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D’Esposito. “We are optimistic that we will have the opportunity to work together again at some point down the road.” Well, at least it’s not clobberin’ time.

Watts says: “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.”

Though this might be disappointing for fans of Watts’ Marvel work; he, along with regular writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers brought a real light, funny touch to their ‘Spider-Man’ films and Watts felt like a potentially good fit for Reed Richards and his hero team.

Marvel Studio’s ‘Fantastic Four.'

Marvel Studio’s ‘Fantastic Four.'

For those who don’t know their ‘Fantastic Four’ from their ‘Fantastic Beasts’, the Four were introduced into the pages of Marvel comics in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The core characters are Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, a scientific genius and the leader of the group, who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes; the Invisible Woman/Susan "Sue" Storm, who eventually married Reed, who can render herself invisible and project powerful invisible force fields and blasts; the Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Sue's younger brother, who can generate flames, surround himself with them and fly; and the monstrous Thing/Ben Grimm, their grumpy but benevolent friend, a former college football star, Reed's college roommate and a good pilot, who possesses tremendous superhuman strength, durability and endurance due to his stone-like flesh.

The characters have been brought to screens several times before, including an unauthorized Roger Cormanadaptation (“to screens is a misnomer in that case, since it’s mostly available as a bootleg), comedy drama takes in Fox’s 2005 outing ‘Fantastic Four’ and 2007 sequel ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer’, followed by a darker reboot in 2015, which didn’t thrill fans or score well at the box office.

Watts was attached to the developing MCU version in December 2020, and it has been quietly bubbling away ever since.

But he’s seemingly looking to focus instead on an untitled film snapped up by Apple in a rich deal, which is set to star George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the story of rival “fixers” who are hired for the same job. Not a web-slinger or superpowered person to be found, but certainly a couple of superstars.

Now, of course, we wait to see who takes over the job of bringing the next stage of the ‘Fantastic Four’ story to screens…