Why Spider-Man 5 is stuck waiting on a Naruto movie
Spider-Man: Brand New Day made over $1.67 billion, but the sequel is in a holding pattern. The likely director, Destin Daniel Cretton, is committed to a live-action Naruto film for Lionsgate first, pushing Spider-Man 5 to potentially 2029.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day was a monster hit, over $1.67 billion worldwide. So why is there no clear timeline for the next one? The short answer isn’t a contract dispute or a creative crisis. It’s a Naruto movie.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton, who steered Brand New Day to become one of 2026’s biggest films, is the top choice of both Marvel and Sony to direct the follow-up.
But before he can return to Peter Parker, he’s contractually committed to directing Lionsgate‘s live-action Naruto adaptation, a project he signed onto back in February 2024, before he ever boarded Brand New Day.
That prior commitment is the whole reason the wait exists.
The scheduling knot
The timeline is the problem, not anyone’s willingness.
Naruto has entered pre-production, with a global casting search underway for its three lead roles and principal photography targeted for the first half of 2027. Cretton is booked solid working on it through that window. Realistically, that means he couldn’t get back into the director’s chair for a new Spider-Man film until 2028 at the earliest, which puts a likely release somewhere around 2029.
And that’s the optimistic version. It assumes Cretton returns at all and that a new deal comes together smoothly, negotiations that, for a director coming off a billion-dollar hit, tend to take their own sweet time.
Marvel and Sony want him back
The good news for fans is that everyone involved seems to want the same thing.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has confirmed “there are always plans” for Peter Parker, while adding that star Tom Holland and Zendaya are taking a well-earned break after the global press tour.
Producer Amy Pascal has been direct about wanting Cretton back in the chair. Cretton himself, asked whether he’d return, reportedly offered a simple “sure.”
So the pieces are willing, the director, the stars, the studios. They’re just not available at the same time. Holland is resting, Cretton is in the Hidden Leaf Village, and Spider-Man 5 waits for the calendar to clear.
The upside of waiting
If there’s consolation, it’s that Spider-Man has been here before, and it worked out.
Brand New Day itself followed a roughly five-year gap after No Way Home, and that wait arguably helped, absence built anticipation, and the film opened to enormous numbers partly because fans were starving for it.
A gap between Spider-Man films isn’t automatically a bad thing; the franchise has proven that letting the character breathe can pay off at the box office.
There’s also a bigger-picture reason a delay might suit Marvel: the next couple of years are dominated by Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, the reset points for the whole MCU. Slotting Spider-Man 5 in after that dust settles, rather than crowding it against two universe-ending Avengers films, has a certain logic.
Peter Parker’s next chapter is coming. It’s just going to take a detour through a ninja movie first, and if history holds, the wait might do it more good than harm.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
The Direct (August 2026), verified for Cretton filming Naruto in 2027, the resulting 2029 estimate for Spider-Man 5, Feige’s “there are always plans” and Holland/Zendaya victory-lap quotes, and the confirmed-and-rumored Spider-Man slate
ComicBook.com (2024-2026), verified for Cretton being attached to Naruto since February 2024 (before Brand New Day), Marvel and Sony moving forward on the next Spider-Man with him as director, and the Chris McKenna/Erik Sommers writing context
DiscussingFilm via reporting (August 2026), verified for Naruto entering pre-production, the Team 7 casting search, the early-2027 filming target, and Cretton being first choice for the Spider-Man sequel
GamesRadar/GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT (August 2026), verified for the $1.67 billion-plus box office, Amy Pascal’s stated preference for Cretton’s return, Cretton’s “sure” response, and the five-year-gap-before-Brand-New-Day comparison