Jon Who? That’s a fair assessment of the general reaction to the news that Marvel was entrusting its latest Spider-Man reboot to a director with only two low-budget features under his belt.

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With Eli Roth-backed horror Clown and Kevin Bacon-starring indie thriller Cop Car as his only track record, 34-year-old Jon Watts has snagged the prestigious gig helming the web-slinger’s full movie entry (upcoming cameo in Captain America: Civil War aside) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe Watts joins the recent list of relatively inexperienced young male directors (Colin Trevorrow on Jurassic World, Josh Trank on Fantastic Four and even his predecessor Mark Webb on The Amazing Spider-Man movies) given the keys the some pretty high-spec movie properties. Here’s what he had to say about getting that gig, and his plans for a new Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who this time out is back in High School…You know, still, I’m not exactly sure! [laughs] It’s still hard to believe it’s happening, even though I’m working on it every day. And at weekends. I went in and first it was just a general meeting. Then I just kept going back and talking more and more about why I liked the character so much…Yeah, I wasn’t, like, a crazy comic-book fan, but absolutely. I mean, I think every kid is a Spider-Man fan at some point. It’s a phase you go through because he’s just the most relatable of all the [superhero] characters.Yeah, and I think that’s what will set him apart. I mean, I can’t go into any plot details, but he’s the ground-level superhero. It’s really exciting, because we’re doing it as a High School movie. And I think it being a coming-of-age movie, to see that growth, will also be really fun.Umm… you know what’s been great? Since being at Marvel, I’ve been watching everything over and over and over again, all the movies and seeing how all the movies connect has been very satisfying for me. Like, there were things that I wasn’t necessarily picking up on the first time through in some of those movies and you go all the way back to the earlier ones and you see they’re connecting…There’s so much, it’s just all the overlaps. I like watching the Stark family continuity throughout the movies, seeing Tony’s dad in the first Captain America, things like that.I don’t want to say anything specific because I don’t want to give away any of the things I like the most, because I want to save those for my movie… [laughs] I’m not really thinking about it in those terms. I’m thinking about it more as my favourite coming-of-age movies.I have a lot! I love Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything and Almost Famous, I think those are really great coming-of-age movies. Can’t Buy Me Love is a really great one…Yeah! [laughs] There are so many… Fresh. Have you seen that movie?Yeah, it really is! His final plan is like all these brilliantly thought-out chess moves with all the dudes. I love that movie. It’s been really fun to go back and revisit all those too and see what makes those movies really special. I also re-watched Breaking Away and Dead Poets’ Society, which is such a moving one.Well, working with Marvel and Sony, I feel like there’s a lot of support in place. It doesn’t feel like I’m alone in a room with the burden of making this movie all on my shoulders. It’s a really sort of nurturing and collaborative environment that they’ve created. So right now, it feels good and very positive and very creative. It’s fun! I’m having a blast.Well yeah, he’s in a world where the Avengers exist. So that already puts lots of possibilities at play. It’s all the same universe, so definitely. It has to make sense logically.Jon Watt’s Spider-Man movie will hit screens summer 2017.