Back in 2013, whenAndrew Garfieldwas our Spider-Man and Sony Pictures wasinsanelybullish about its franchise prospects, the future of theSpider-Manseries was a blank slate. Filming onThe Amazing Spider-Man 2was underway, but Sony was already announcing plans for future spinoff films likeVenomandThe Sinister Six, which would all connect in the studio’s own mini-interconnected universe. In February of 2014, a couple of months beforeThe Amazing Spider-Man 2hit theaters,Marc Webbwas officially announced as returning to directThe Amazing Spider-Man 3and Sony couldn’t wait to see how audiences reacted toAmazing Spider-Man 2, which set up vague plans for future films.
As we now know,The Amazing Spider-Man 2was poorly received by critics and, while it grossed $709 million at the worldwide box office, it fell short of the box office of its predecessor. Sony subsequently scrapped all of its long-term interconnected universe plans, teamed up with Marvel Studios forSpider-Man: Homecoming, and is now taking a different track in the wake of that film’s critical praise—although, curiously, whileHomecomingbested the domestic gross of bothAmazingmovies, its worldwide total is, for now, the lowest for aSpider-Manmovie since the original at $673 million. Of course it had a lower budget and reaps other benefits for the IP overall, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
But beforeHomecominghappened, plans were well underway forThe Amazing Spider-Man 3andSinister Six, to be directed byDrew Goddard, and now Webb has revealed what we would have seen had those films been made. Speaking withDen of Geek(viaThe Playlist), Webb confirmed that the intention was to bringChris Cooper’s Norman Osborn back after his character’s death inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2:
“Yeah, we were talking about the Sinister Six. They were going to make aSinister Sixmovie before we did the third one. But I wanted…Chris Cooper was going to come back and play the Goblin. We were going to freeze his head, and then he was going to be brought back to life. And then there was that character called The Gentleman. We had some notions about how to do it, but I think maybe we were thinking too far ahead when we started building in those things. But it was a fun exercise. I look back very fondly on those days."
Indeed, while there was speculation about whetherJamie Foxx’s Electro would be leading theSinister Sixmovie, Webb says the intention was for Cooper’s Goblin to take on that role:
“Well, that was going to be the main villain. He was going to come out and lead the Sinister Six. We had talked about Vulture a little bit too, actually….”
Many were confused as to why Chris Cooper was cast inThe Amazing Spider-Man 2to basically only pop up in a couple of scenes as a sickly old man, but now we know they were laying the groundwork for the sequel. This kind of future planning has become a major issue in franchise filmmaking—thinking too far ahead can oftentimes lead to the detriment of the film you’re makingnow.
In the interview, Webb takes full responsibility for bothAmazing Spider-Manmovies, saying for better or worse they were his films through and through. But he does admit if he could do it again, he’d do things differently:
Sony is currentlytrying to launch its own universeseparate from the Marvel co-producedSpider-Manmovies withVenomhitting theaters next year andSilver & Blackfollowing in short order, so hopefully they’ve learned their lesson about rushing productions and losing sight of the film at hand.
Webb, meanwhile, has jumped back into character-centric films likeGiftedand the upcomingThe Only Living Boy in New York, but I will say I appreciated his approach to the interpersonal relationships inAmazing Spider-Man 1and2, so I would definitely be interested to see him tackle another blockbuster at some point.
