While Jon Watts likely doesn’t have the long, beloved career of Sam Raimi, he does have one thing the iconic filmmaker doesn’t – a beloved “Spider-Man” trilogy. And as the director with the most successful ‘Spidey’ run, Watts’ advice to the next person who will take the helm isn’t exactly what you might expect.
Speaking to Collider, Jon Watts was asked what his advice would be for the next person to tackle a ‘Spider-Man’ film. Maybe he’d talk about how to craft a good Peter Parker story. Or perhaps he has advice about where to go after the ‘No Way Home’ finale. Nope. Instead, he has what he calls some “practical” advice.
“I have a very practical bit of ‘Spider-Man’ advice, and I think every ‘Spider-Man’ director goes through it,” explained Watts. “It doesn’t look good when someone is just swinging on a rope. You think you’re gonna go in there, you’re like, ‘We’re gonna do it all practical. We’re gonna get a stuntman. We’re gonna be swinging around.’ It’s boring. It looks dumb. It looks like a monkey swinging on a vine when you put someone on just a rope. Don’t waste your time. That’s my advice to the next ‘Spider-Man’ director.”
Not the most eyepopping advice ever, but definitely important. Bringing it back to Raimi, for a second, you can see how the filmmaker did try to use practical effects whenever possible for the swinging. Particularly, the swinging where Spidey would come into frame and land. It looked… not great. It was revolutionary at the time, but ultimately, didn’t look as dynamic as what Marvel Studios is capable of doing now.
And sure, it’s not fun to say, “Use more CGI!” We all would love to see more Marvel films try to integrate real sets in the future. But when it comes to Spider-Man and how the character moves in live-action, CGI is just really the only route to go.
As for who is going to take the advice– we have no clue yet. We know Sony is hard at work on nailing a “Spider-Man 4” story. And obviously, the studio would love to have that in theaters ASAP. We’ll just have to wait and see.
