For a film budgeted somewhere between $200-300 million and carrying $1 billion worldwide box office aspirations, the $704 million The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has brought in so far is a massive disappointment for Sony, which already had plans to release The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in June 2016 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 in May 2018 along with The Sinister Six and Venom, building a complete Spider-Man universe. While I fully expect all of those films to get made, the timeline may have shifted.
Speaking with IGN, Amazing Spider-Man 2 screenwriter Roberto Orci tells the site he’s no longer officially involved in Spider-Man 3. This isn’t a huge surprise considering Orci has been named writer and director on Star Trek 3, but there is something so definitive when he says, “I’m not officially involved in it,” that it raises a few eyebrows.
As for the future of the franchise he adds, “I don’t know what their plans are… I don’t ever want to say never, but we have to figure out what their scheduling is in terms of when they want each movie. I’ve read probably as much as anyone else. There’s a love for ‘The Sinister Six,’ the idea of ‘Venom’ — there’s an idea of Spider-Man’s going to be one of these characters that’s part of our business. He’s such a popular character. Spider-Man’s not going to go away any time soon. When it all happens and how and all that has yet to be determined. I don’t want to say anything about what they should do. I don’t want them to think I’m spilling the beans about something.”
About a month ago rumors began swirling that Spider-Man 3 could be pushed all the way to 2017. Is that any big surprise considering the summer 2016 superhero slate includes Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America 3, X-Men: Apocalypse, an unnamed Marvel movie, Planet of the Apes 3 and much more.
Then again, with upwards of 22 superhero movies in the next four years there may never be a “perfect” time to try and tweak the formula when it comes to Spider-Man. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
