Thomas Roach on whether four years is too long to wait for The Amazing Spider-Man 3….
Many people will be aware that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has now been pushed back to 2018 which is a very long wait for fans. Four years for a sequel is too long to wait considering that the gap between the first and second movie was only two years. We do have a Sinister Six movie coming in 2016 to break up the long wait but many fans are nervous about the Sinister Six movie. Frankly, because we know very little about The Sinister Six, we don’t know what to expect. One big question is will Spider-Man be in it?
Andrew Garfield has teased his involvement in the past, but then why not make The Amazing Spider-Man 3 with the Sinister Six? Are we supposed to believe that The Sinister Six movie will have the villains as protagonists? Many assumed that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was setting up the introduction of The Sinister Six with the cameos and Easter eggs teasing the villains. Are the Sinister Six set to be the villains for The Amazing Spider-Man 3? If so, are the audience expected to believe that Spider-Man didn’t try and stop these bad guys during their movie? The whole idea of a Sinister Six movie seems a mess.
One reason that may have caused a delay for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed in the eyes of the studio. Despite making over $700 million at the global box office, the film had a high production budget and marketing budget which cut the profits of the film. For a big budget film and a character as popular as Spider-Man, the filmmakers will be having trouble convincing Sony to make another film. At the same time with the introduction of a Sinister Six movie and a female-led superhero movie in 2017, it is clear Sony want to build their own cinematic universe revolving around Spider-Man. I understand why they would want to do this but not having their A-list character anywhere to be seen for four years is a major risk.
Many people criticized The Amazing Spider-Man 2, saying the film was cluttered with villains and questioning a great deal of the story. Even the star of the film came out and criticized the film. Andrew Garfield has made it clear that the studio interfered too much with the making of the sequel and thus ruined it. Despite this, Garfield happily and openly praised the film as it came out, but I’m sure he was contractually obliged to do so.
I am sure that after Andrew Garfield came out with his latest comments he would have upset the studio, and Sony may be reluctant to make another film too quickly because of this. This may seem an immature thing to do, but if the actor playing the lead in a franchise moans about the film would they be keen to invest millions of dollars in another sequel? There has even been talk of a reboot instead of doing The Amazing Spider-Man 3. One of the highlights of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was Dane DeHaan’s performance as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin and that may be why a Sinister Six movie has taken the place of The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
Overall four years is a long time to wait for another Spider-Man movie and this will likely be a major risk for the studio. I’m sure The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will happen in 2018 but I don’t expect it to end on a high note unfortunately. We do have two Sony superhero films before then (or possibly three with Venom), but there is no guarantee that these films will succeed. Sony is taking a lot of risks over the next few years and if The Sinister Six can’t help to get the franchise back on track then selling the character rights to Marvel may be the studio’s only option.
Can you wait four years for a new Spider-Man movie? Let us know…
Originally published September 30, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
