Fans have called for the return of Andrew Garfield's incarnation of the famous web-slinger in a third Amazing Spider-Man movie for a while now. Caught in the middle between Tobey Maguire's beloved Spider-Man and Tom Holland's Spider-Man in the MCU, Garfield's movie proved to be the least popular with critics and audiences for years. However, as time has gone on there has been a cultural reassessment of both Garfield's depiction of the web-head and the movies themselves.
Update September 17, 2022: This article has been updated with additional information regarding The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the last Spider-Man movie before the character was rebooted as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Originally intended to kick off a new cinematic universe for the studio, the planned The Amazing Spider-Man sequels and spin-off films including The Sinister Six were canceled. Garfield referred to the experience as heartbreaking. However, renewed fan interest in Garfield's Spider-Man may eventually prove to be enough to bring the previously planned follow-up to fruition, particularly as Sony's universe (which includes the critically underwhelming but box office hits Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, along with the flop Morbius) might need some back-up from a popular Spider-Man actor. Here is everything we know about the original plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and why the film ultimately never came to be.
Who Was Involved in The Amazing Spider-Man 3
Both Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield and director Marc Webb were confirmed to return. Webb revealed that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would have been his last Spider-Man film as director. That said, the aptly named Webb would have remained as producer and creative consultant for the subsequent films in the franchise. Additionally, all three writers of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner, were announced to return for the sequel. However, Orci left the film to write and direct Star Trek Beyond (2016), though he also left that project while retaining producer credit.
Chris Cooper shared with CBR that he would have had a "huge" role in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 after his brief appearance as Harry's father and Oscorp CEO, Norman Osborn, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Similarly, Paul Giamatti revealed in an interview with Collider that he would have reprised his role as Rhino. Denis Leary, who appeared in the first film as Captain Stacy and whose memory haunts Peter in the second film, could also have been part of The Amazing Spider-Man 3. It was also widely believed that Shailene Woodley, who was cast as Mary Jane Watson for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but whose role was eventually cut, would return for the third film.
Plot: What Was The Amazing Spider-Man 3 About?
Norman Osborn is the name commonly associated with the alter ego Green Goblin, and although others have adopted the mantle he is typically the first. However, the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was Norman's son, Harry who in the comics becomes the second Green Goblin after his father. Following the death of Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy at the hands of the Green Goblin, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was planned to focus on Garfield's Peter Parker as he struggled to recover and move on.
Webb shared with Den of Geek that Norman Osborn was planned to be the main villain. Norman Osborn died in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from a mysterious illness that was genetic and also affected Harry. Harry attempted to cure himself with Oscorp's spider venom which instead accelerated his disease and transformed him into the Green Goblin.
In order for Norman to return, he would have been resurrected in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 as the new Goblin. The Amazing Spider-Man films treated Oscorp as a supervillain factory, with all villains in that universe being born from an incident at Oscorp. While Rhino did not become a lizard or fall into a vat of electric eels, he was broken out of prison and given a mechanical suit by Oscorp.
Creation of the Sinister Six
A post-credits scene that was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured the frozen head of Norman Osborn and the mysterious "Gentleman" Gustav Fiers. Here is what Webb shared with Den of Geek:
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.
Cooper's Goblin would have been the leader of the Sinister Six teased in the end-credits scene for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The line-up was not finalized, but the credits teased Green Goblin, Vulture, Rhino, Doc Ock, Kraven the Hunter, and Mysterio. Vulture was considered by Sony to make an appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
Osborn may not have been the only character resurrected in the film as Leary revealed in an interview with IGN that his character (Gwen Stacy's father) could have returned.
Part of the discussion was that, possibly in ‘3,’ there was this idea at one point that Spider-Man would be able to take this formula and regenerate the people in his life that had died. So there was this discussion that Captain Stacy would come back even bigger in episode three.
The idea of not only Oscorp but Spider-Man, using experimental science to bring certain people back from the dead was not among Sony's finest. It not only would have seemed out out-of-character for Spider-Man but also seemed like an indicator Sony was possibly going down the path of the controversial "Clone Saga" storyline from the comics.
The Underperformance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released in 2014, the same year as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the lowest-grossing of the films, failing to surpass the first Amazing Spider-Man film at the box office. The film also became the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film at the time of its release, opening to $91 million which was a far cry from the record-breaking opening weekends of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3.
The highest-grossing Spider-Man film is currently Spider-Man: No Way Home which has grossed over $1.9 billion during a pandemic. For comparison, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ended its box-office run with $709 million. While that number still indicates a very financially successful film, it did not perform to Sony's expectations and was a factor in the decision behind the series' cancelation.
The box office underperformance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had Sony readjust their plans. They originally had The Amazing Spider-Man 3 set for release on June 19, 2016, but the film was taken off the schedule. Instead, Sinister Six would come out between The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3, with Sinister Six set for release on November 11, 2016. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was then dated for 2018 with The Amazing Spider-Man 4 moved to an unspecified date.
Poor Relations Between Sony and Andrew Garfield
In 2014, Sony Pictures was hacked by a group that demanded Sony Pictures withdraw the release of the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview which was a film about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which leaked confidential data. A lot of information was leaked, but one was a set of emails revealing the poor relations between Sony and Garfield. Information was made public about Garfield's absence from a major Sony promotional event playing a major role in The Amazing Spider-Man 3's cancelation.
Sony boss Kaz Hirai flew out to Brazil for a major conference where the film would have been officially announced. Garfield did not attend the event. According to a report from Cinema Blend, Garfield claimed his absence was due to sickness caused by jetlag. Kaz Hirai was not impressed. Garfield's behavior displeased many Sony execs, who did not feel encouraged to continue with the Amazing Spider-Man franchise.
The cancelation of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 also meant the cancelation of all sequels and spin-off films which included both Amazing Spider-Man sequels, a Black Cat solo movie, and Sinister Six. A Venom spin-off film was repurposed to exist outside the Amazing Spider-Man franchise and was released in 2018.
Spider-Man Splits With Sony For the MCU
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The emails also revealed that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios had reached out to Sony Pictures and Amy Pascal about teaming up to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, however, Marvel Studios wanted a clean slate. With their Amazing Spider-Man franchise canceled, and the character's brand damaged due to the poor critical and box office reaction to both The Amazing Spider-Man films, Sony Pictures finally struck a deal with Marvel Studios, and on February 10, 2015, less than a year after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 open, it was confirmed that an all-new Spider-Man would join the MCU.
Garfield would later return as Spider-Man in No Way Home, seven years after he last played the character. With the film's success and the fact that Sony Pictures has revived their own cinematic universe using Spider-Man characters (with Venom, Morbius, and soon-to-be Kraven the Hunter and Madame Webb), it may be a good idea for Sony to reveal those films are part of the Amazing Spider-Man universe and allow Andrew Garfield to return as Spider-Man and continue that franchise's story.