Spider-Man 4 with Tom Holland and Zendaya delayed by the writers strike

Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures producer on the last few Spider-Man movies, has confirmed in an interview for Variety that everyone on the team wants to make Spider-Man 4 with Tom Holland and Zendaya, but that the movie is currently dependent on the writers strike.

“Are we going to make another movie? Of course, we are,” Pascal began to explain. “We’re in the process, but the writers strike, nobody is working during the strike. We’re all being supporters and whenever they get themselves together, we’ll get started.”

Considering that the last major Hollywood writers strike dragged on for over 100 days, that Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t be released until 2021, that dates have to be juggled with two schedules as tight as Tom Holland’s and Zendaya’s, and that a project of this magnitude takes a long time, the question now is when we’ll see our friendly neighbor in theaters again. A long break is coming for the character.

A few months ago, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed Spider-Man 4, he also let it be known that his intention was to update the wall-crawler’s story before the next installments of The Avengers (The Kang Dynasty, scheduled for May 2, 2025, and its sequel, Secret Wars, for May 1, 2026). With that in mind, time is going to be of the essence.

Screenwriters Strike to Fight AI

One of the main topics of discussion has been the emerging AI threat to the profession. In recent months, we have seen a proliferation of artificial intelligences and bots that take original scripts from shows like Seinfeld and create new, random, never-ending episodes for free and without the authors’ permission.

The WGA is demanding to “regulate use of artificial intelligence” and a ban on AI being able to rewrite screenwriters’ material or be trained from previous work to mimic a style and create new writing with it. So far, the major TV studios have rejected the demand, and the union’s proposed counter-offer to hold “annual meetings to discuss advances in the technology” has also been rejected.