Spider-Man: Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton is currently busy promoting the upcoming release of the Tom Holland-led film, which hits North American theaters on July 30.
While on the press tour, Cretton has been periodically asked about what could potentially be the next project he films, a live-action Naruto adaptation from Lionsgate.
Earlier this month, an official global casting search was announced by Lionsgate, with the purpose of finding its Team 7- Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno.
Speaking to Inverse, Cretton hinted that the upcoming film adaptation will only cover the first few story arcs/Team-7 missions, rather than bite off more than the film can chew. Said Cretton, "I'm a big fan of it and a big fan of [series creator Masashi] Kishimoto-san. I'll say that we are staying very close to what Kishimoto-san created. I think the biggest mistake we could do is bite off too much for one movie. I think what we're making right now is very exciting."
The original Naruto manga is fairly dense, spanning 700 chapters that are collected in 72 volumes. To put that into context, that spawned 720 episodes of the Naruto and Naruto Shippuden anime. Even accounting for filler arcs, that still gave rise to 427 episodes of a 20-minute TV anime.
That leaves any director or writer with an overwhelming task, and a huge temptation to bypass the fun, lighthearted origin stuff and just to fast-forward to the darker, action-heavy arcs fans love.
But it sounds like Cretton wants to set the tone and do a bit of world-building first before jumping into all of the betrayals, backstabbing, and revenge.
While still on his Brand New Day press tour, Cretton also opened up about how directing Spider-Man mirrors his approach to Lionsgate’s live-action Naruto film. At their core, both Peter Parker and the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki are classic outsider stories built around identity, isolation, and heavy burdens.
Speaking to @Nerdtropolis, Cretton told the site, "I feel very grateful that I get to go from exploring the world of a character like Peter Parker to exploring the character of Naruto. There are a lot of similarities between the two characters. They’re both characters who have had some very tragic pasts. They make a lot of mistakes. They’re very imperfect, but at their core, they’re desperately trying to be the best version of themselves."
This comes after previous comments from Cretton where he disclosed his personal connection to the source material, growing up as half-Japanese in Hawaii.
Cretton stated. "Naruto's trajectory, his feelings of being an outsider, the feeling of having an ugliness or a monster or some part of you that you’re ashamed of, and then coming to realize that’s the part that makes you unique, that gives you your power. He added he, "always felt very connected" to the manga and that, "When I met Kishimoto-san, the creator, it just amplified that feeling of connection."