Spider-Man 4 Needs to Give Marvel a Street-Level Hero Again

News broke on Monday afternoon that Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton is signing on to helm the next installment in Marvel and Sony’s joint Spider-Man film series. Cretton takes over for Jon Watts as Tom Holland returns for his fourth solo Spider-Man movie, and reports indicate it could start production in early 2025. So not only is Spider-Man 4 actually happening, it’s coming pretty fast. But there’s still one major question that Marvel needs to answer as it puts this film together: What kind of Spider-Man movie is this going to be?

Remember the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home? Of course you do, it’s a stellar ending that made a promise to Marvel fans. At the conclusion of the film, everyone in the world forgot that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. That includes MJ and Ned, who forgot all of the adventures they had with Peter in the time since he became the webslinger. This left Peter pretty much alone, without friends or family, trying to do the best he could managing his everyday life in addition to his heroic responsibilities. Finally, for the very first time, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker was set for an actual Spider-Man story, one that was more concerned with New York City than the fate of the multiverse.

This back to basics, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man story isn’t just what Marvel promised with that final scene in No Way Home, but it’s a movie fans have been genuinely excited about ever since. If this is the movie Marvel said we were going to get, and it’s one that fans really want, why is starting to feel like we’re not going to get it?

There have been reports that the new Spider-Man is going to take place around the same time as the upcoming Avengers films, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Things are going to get even heavier into the multiverse for the Avengers, and you have to think Spider-Man heavily factors into Marvel’s plans for the saga. When is Peter supposed to worry about his neighborhood if the entire multiverse is about to fall apart…again?

On top of that, there’s the hiring of Cretton to think about. This guy can direct some fantastic action sequences, as seen in Shang-Chi, which makes him a great fit for any kind of Spider-Man adventure. But Cretton has also been rising through Marvel’s ranks after taking on Shang-Chi and the upcoming Wonder Man series. He was reportedly set to direct , one of the franchise’s biggest films to-date. Things obviously changed with the Kang angle was scrapped and the Russo Brothers were brought back in to helm the next to Avengers movies.

Could Marvel’s reasons for hiring Cretton to direct Kang Dynasty be similar to the reasons he’s landing Spider-Man 4? It’s too early to really give a lot of thought to that, but it does add to the notion that this new Spider-Man could be more in line with the franchise’s last couple of entries. Hopefully that’s not the case, but it absolutely seems like a strong possibility.

Would it really be so hard to ask for an honest-to-goodness Spider-Man movie? One where Peter Parker has to balance his personal and heroic lives while dealing with the weight of responsibility he was given? He saved the multiverse already, I don’t think he really needs to do it again and again.

Spider-Man has evolved into a lot of things over the years, but as his core he’s a street-level hero. He’ supposed to be the guy we all see ourselves in, the one who looks out for those around him and stands up to bullies because he doesn’t see anyone else around who can. That’s the type of story the MCU needs right now, mainly because it doesn’t have very many. It’s all multiversal escapades and team-ups anymore, and I’m just not sure how many more of those are necessary.

Wouldn’t it be nice just to see Holland try and make it to work on time while also trying to orchestrate a meet-cute with an MJ that doesn’t remember him and stop the Green Goblin from setting off a bomb in Manhattan? And by that I mean, wouldn’t it be nice just to see Tom Holland actually get to play Spider-Man for a change?