‘Spider-Man 4’ is on its way, but production has been paused

The brass at Sony are teasing another Tom Holland-led Spider-Man film as they release the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse this week and put the finishing touches on next year’s finale, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. But fans should go ahead and get their fill of cartoon Spider-people for the moment: It seems the ongoing writers’ strike has shut down work on the next live-action entry.

Per Variety, a follow-up to 2019’s massively successful Spider-Man: No Way Home is still in the works, but development is paused while the WGA strike continues, according to producer Amy Pascal.

At the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiere, Pascal explained, “We’re in the process, but [with] the writers’ strike, nobody is working.” She added, “We’re all being supporters, and whenever they get themselves together, we’ll get started.” Regarding the sequel, Sony boss Tom Rothman said only, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Pascal also teased an animated Spider-Woman movie in the pipeline — presumably voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, who portrays Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Gwen in the Spider-Verse films. Steinfeld sounds like she’s up for as many entries as Sony wants: “This is like my dream job. Sign me up, over and over again.” She added that she actually gets to be “comfortable” doing voice work, noting, “And it’s a dream to be in a space that feels so comfortable but also creative and free.”

Apparently, no one at Sony believes in superhero fatigue — or even Spider-person fatigue.

Still, many fans will be happy to hear that a fourth Spider-Man movie in the Holland continuity is on the way. Although many believe No Way Home tied up Peter Parker’s high-school trilogy in satisfying crossover fashion, the ending of that film left our hero in a very lonely place. And given a post-credit teaser revealing that the alien symbiote from Tom Hardy’s Venom films has crossed over into the MCU, we’re betting the loneliness Peter feels eventually leads to cosmic darkness.

Don’t be surprised if Spider-Man 4 is called Spider-Man: Homeworld or something and the Web-Head himself is donning a black suit covered in some very willful alien goo. Please hold the dancing this time, though.