I wouldn’t blame you if you thought Sony could not make a worse SSU movie than Madame Web. I happened to share that thought, but Sony accepted the challenge. Kraven, which I naively thought might be a higher-quality Sony’s Spider-Man Universe adventure than what we’ve seen so far, turned out to be an even bigger box office flop.
As such, I’ve seen plenty of wild Spider-Man-related rumors over the past few days. Some said that Sony would kill the SSU altogether. Others claimed that Sony is even considering selling back the rights to the Spider-Man universe to Marvel, the rightful owner.
Also, I saw reports saying that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse would not get a 2025 release date; thank the heavens for that. Meanwhile, we still lacked official Spider-Man 4 news.
On Monday afternoon, things took a wild turn as several leaks started teasing an imminent Spider-Man 4 announcement from Sony. But there was no official news by the end of the day. Nor do we have a release date estimate that is different from the latest speculation. That’s Christmas 2026 for Spider-Man 4, with production set to start in the second half of next year.
However, the leakers also dropped some wild Spider-Man 4 rumors that are even crazier than what we have seen so far. Big spoilers might follow below, so avoid what follows below if you want to be surprised.
Tom Holland confirmed more than once that Spider-Man 4 is in the making. He made those remarks during podcasts and TV shows, saying the film will start shooting next summer. Around the same time, we heard that Christopher Nolan was casting his mysterious new movie. Tom Holland and Zendaya are set to star in that alongside an incredible and growing list of A-list actors.
Nolan’s picture has a July 2026 release date, which was also when we expected Spider-Man 4 to come out. The MCU film should drop between Avengers: Doomsday (May 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (May 2027).
Production delays soon followed, and they cited scheduling issues as the main reason Sony and Marvel would move Spider-Man 4 to the Christmas 2026 release window.
Separately, the Spider-Man 4 plot rumors kept dropping in the background. As a reminder, older rumors said that Sony and Marvel were at odds at one point about the type of story they wanted to tell. Sony wanted a big multiverse movie like No Way Home, while Marvel wanted a more down-to-earth adventure.
Since some of the newer rumors said that Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man might appear in the sequel and that Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) might also show up, Spider-Man 4 seemed to shape up like a multiverse crossover event. Truth be told, RDJ has to appear in the MCU as much as possible before Doomsday and Secret Wars, so a Spider-Man 4 cameo makes all the sense in the world.
Add the Venom 3 rumors and the idea that Knull (Andy Serkis) could be the villain of Spider-Man 4, and you’d think that Sony did indeed prevail over Marvel, not that we’ll ever know whether the conflict was real.
That’s all the context you need to realize the Spider-Man 4 leaks were always a bit crazy. That’s understandable. After all, Peter Parker is a major character for Sony and Marvel. Considering what happened in No Way Home, Spider-Man 4 is also a big deal for Tom Holland’s character and the MCU.
What I’m trying to say is that it shouldn’t surprise you to see new reports stating that Spider-Man 4 might feature two characters that we never expected: Mephisto and Ghost Rider. What’s even crazier is the name rumored for the latter. Keanu Reeves would apparently play the character, which wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to the MCU.
Then again, these are just unconfirmed rumors. Daniel Richtman already seemed to backtrack on the Ghost Rider teaser.
But if you go on X and see the tweets in this post, you’ll understand that something is brewing. It’s as if these leakers know Sony and Marvel are about to make a Spider-Man 4 release date announcement, but they’re not willing to drop the news themselves.
It all started with Jeff Sneider, who teased some Spider-Man 4 news for Monday evening. But that news never came.
I will say that Sony could use a narrative shift right now. Everyone is bashing Kraven and the SSU, and for good reason. Sony never really tried to turn these Spider-Man villain movies into stories we’d want to watch.
Spider-Man 4 news, including a release date and cast announcements, would be the perfect way to make the world forget Kraven and start talking about the Spider-Man movie most people are dying to see.
On the same note, Beyond the Spider-Verse news would work equally well for Sony. But the insiders all seem to tease that whatever might be coming will be related to Spider-Man 4.