Jon Watts, the director of Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy, was initially set to helm The Fantastic Four: First Steps as well—and given his brilliant work with our favorite web-slinging hero, who wouldn't have wanted that? As it turns out, Watts himself stepped away. The filmmaker has now spoken for the first time about his decision to leave the project, explaining that after completing the Spider-Man films—both during production and throughout the grueling post-pandemic post-production—he felt completely "out of gas" and unable to take on another major undertaking.

“Managing the emotional toll of adhering to all those COVID protocols, while still striving to create something imaginative and ensuring the safety of everyone on set—knowing that a single misstep could have serious consequences—combined with a difficult post-production phase made the entire experience incredibly challenging,” Watts shared during a storytelling masterclass at the Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta on June 26.

“When you're handling visual effects work,” he continued, “you’re often relying on international vendors, but due to COVID, supply chains were severely disrupted. Completing effects through conventional methods became extremely difficult.”

Watts, who served as a producer and received a story credit for the recent hit Final Destination: Bloodlines, had initially committed to First Steps between shooting the second and third Spider-Man movies: Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. But as the project moved into pre-production, he recognized he was simply too drained to continue.

“Adding the COVID-related challenges on top of an already massive film production made me realize I didn’t have the energy required to deliver a great movie,” he elaborated during the discussion. “I was completely burned out and needed time to recover. The team at Marvel completely understood—they had been through the process with me and knew just how exhausting, though ultimately rewarding, that period was. Sometimes, if you can’t give a project the level of commitment it deserves, it’s better to step aside.”

Watts added that he is eager to see what director Matt Shakman, along with the cast and crew, have achieved with their adaptation. Still, he admitted, “It’s going to feel completely surreal for me to sit in a theater and watch that film.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps, starring Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ralph Ineson, arrives in theaters on July 25.