Jon Watts' Next Project Revealed, Marvel and Spider-Man Not Involved

After making two highly successful Spider-Man movies in collaboration with Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, including the first ever billion dollar-grossing Spider-Man: Far From Home, director Jon Watts has become a hot commodity in Hollywood. And with the split between the two companies, rumors cropped up that they were both jockeying to keep Watts involved with the long term, battling over the director's future. Now it looks like his next project has been decided, and it won't be with either Marvel or Sony, nor will it involve Spider-Man. Instead, he's teaming up with Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow for a new FX Network series.

A new report from Collider indicates that Watts has signed on to direct The Old Man, a new series based on the spy novel of the same name by writer Thomas Percy.

The series will follow a character named Dan Chase, played by Bridges, who abandoned the CIA years prior and has since been living a life of anonymity away from the spy game. But when an assassin locates and attempts to kill him, he realizes he must face his past in order to move forward.

Lithgow's character will be Harold Harper, someone with a history with Dan Chase and has been called back to the FBI to stop him.

While the project is definitely intriguing and keeps Watts in the Disney family as he moves to FX, some fans might be disappointed to learn that he will not be focusing on a new Spider-Man movie immediately, nor will he be signing on for a different Marvel Studios project. But this could leave time for the two sides to eventually come together again, allowing Watts to end his Spider-Man trilogy in the MCU as many fans want to see.

Despite the loss of Spider-Man, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige remains proud of the work they did on the franchise in such a short time.

"I'm feeling about Spider-Man gratitude and joy," Feige explained to Entertainment Weekly. "We got to make five films within the MCU with Spider-Man: two standalone films and three with the Avengers. It was a dream that I never thought would happen. It was never meant to last forever. We knew there was a finite amount of time that we'd be able to do this, and we told the story we wanted to tell, and I'll always be thankful for that."

The pilot for The Old Man is expected to begin production this Fall.