Nearly three years ago, in 2019, following the completion of Disney’s acquisition of the 20th Century Fox film and television rights, Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios disclosed formal plans for a fifth feature film adaption of the Fantastic Four superheroes. That announcement was followed in late 2020 by the revelation that three-time MCU Spider-Man filmmaker Jon Watts will direct the Marvel Studios adaptation.

Despite this reasonably constant development process, we haven’t heard much more about it since, but we now know why Fantastic Four hasn’t begun production or made any major casting announcements yet. After working on the three Spider-Man films with Tom Holland for seven years, Jon Watts is taking a break from superhero films and has withdrawn from directing Fantastic Four.