Exclusive: Jon Favreau In Talks To Direct New Marvel Movie
Our trusted and proven sources have told us Jon Favreau is back in play as a Marvel director, so the question is: for which movie?
At any given moment, the entire landscape of modern blockbuster cinema could be changed by a simple announcement from Marvel Studios. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has achieved such dominance in the film industry that even whispers of changes or upcoming projects have wide-ranging effects. In a very exciting turn of events, our trusted and proven sources have informed us that director/writer/actor/Happy Hogan Jon Favreau is in talks to direct for Marvel again.
This is pretty big news. Jon Favreau has not directed for Marvel since Iron Man 2 in 2010, a film that can be gently described as “not quite as terrible as Thor: The Dark World.” He continued to have a strong presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his role as Tony Stark’s buddy/vaguely defined business associate Happy Hogan and transferred that responsibility to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker after Avengers: Endgame. Given the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seems likely that Favreau will not be following Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man around as much. That theoretically could free up some time to direct.
The question then becomes, what film would Jon Favreau be helming for Marvel? The immediate and most obvious answer would be the upcoming but still very nebulous Fantastic Four. Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox excited fans for the inevitability of both Marvel’s First Family and various X-Men-related properties showing up in the MCU. But with the exception of one very recent, very secret appearance, there has not been any announcement of Marvel’s plans for Fantastic Four other than its existence.
It would make sense for Jon Favreau to direct Fantastic Four, in principle. He has long-standing ties to Disney as a whole. In addition to Iron Man and Iron Man 2, he directed both 2016’s The Jungle Book and the 2019 “live-action-kinda-CGI” remake of The Lion King, both of which were enormous commercial blockbusters. He also created, wrote for, and directed an episode of The Mandalorian, the breakout hit of the Star Wars branch of the increasingly important Disney+ streaming platform. In short, Jon Favreau has Marvel’s trust when it comes to huge, pivotal films.
Given that Jon Favreau directed the very first MCU film and helped guide the eventual direction the massive undertaking would go in, it would also make good marketing and thematic sense for him to be involved in one of the more major superhero team film debuts in the MCU. Marvel has been gradually phasing out their original stable of Avengers in the last few years and prepping audiences for new ones, and who better than the guy who kicked it off to begin with?
Fantastic Four is not the only possible Jon Favreau Marvel film (and there are rumors that a certain other Star Wars director may be in play). There are currently 11 upcoming MCU films in various levels of production from “almost done, the trailer has Guns ‘N Roses” to “it exists, okay?” The only films on the queue that do not have attached directors are the upcoming Anthony Mackie-starring Captain America movie, the Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings sequel, and…Fantastic Four. In theory, it could be any one of them, but let’s be honest: the Marvel money is on Fantastic Four.
