Spider-Man: No Way Home Director Says He Left Fantastic Four: First Steps After Working Through Covid: 'Literally, People Could’ve Died'

Jon Watts, the manager of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, was erstwhile acceptable to bring america The Fantastic Four: First Steps arsenic good — and who wouldn’t privation that, aft his fantabulous occupation with our favourite webbed hero? Well, Watts himself, it turns out. The filmmaker opened up astir his departure from the task for the archetypal time, revealing helium was simply excessively “out of gas” aft moving connected Spidey, some connected acceptable and successful post, done the pandemic to instrumentality it on.

“The affectional strain of having to spell done each of those COVID protocols portion besides trying to marque thing originative portion besides trying to marque definite that your formed and unit were each harmless — literally, radical could’ve died if you did things incorrect — that and the post-production process was precise difficult,” Watts revealed astatine the Mediterrane Film Festival successful Malta precocious portion participating successful a storytelling masterclass connected June 26.

“When you’re doing [visual effects work],” helium continued. “There’s a full planetary constituent to it wherever you’re utilizing vendors from each implicit the world, and the proviso concatenation had been interrupted due to the fact that of COVID. It was truly hard to get effects done successful a accepted way.”

The filmmaker, who was a shaper connected and has a communicative recognition for the caller deed Final Destination: Bloodlines, primitively committed to moving connected First Steps betwixt the 2nd Spidey film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the third, Spider-Man: No Way Home. But erstwhile it came clip to displacement gears and get into pre-production mode, helium realized helium was “out of gas.”

“The COVID furniture connected apical of making a elephantine movie layer, I knew I didn’t person what it would’ve taken to marque that movie great,” helium continued during the discussion. “I was conscionable retired of steam, truthful I conscionable needed to instrumentality immoderate clip to recover. Everyone astatine Marvel wholly understood. They had been done it with maine arsenic well, truthful they knew however hard and draining that acquisition has been; successful the end, precise satisfying, but astatine immoderate point, if you can’t bash it astatine the level that you consciousness similar you request to for it to beryllium great, past it’s amended to not bash it.”

Watts did enactment that he’s excited to spot what manager Matt Shakman and the formed and unit person pulled unneurotic for their mentation of the story, but that “it’s going to beryllium [a] wholly surreal acquisition for maine to spell and ticker that movie.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps — which stars Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ralph Ineson — volition get successful theaters connected July 25.

Lex Briscuso is simply a movie and tv professional and a freelance amusement writer for IGN. You tin travel her connected Twitter astatine @nikonamerica.