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Around this time last year, I wrote a piece on the casting for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, suggesting that Marc Webb wouldn’t add actors like Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti and Chris Cooper unless he planned to keep them around for multiple films. At the time, given the amount of world-building happening in the current superhero genre, it appeared that Webb and Sony were thinking beyond the obvious sequel. They were mapping out a larger cinematic universe. Webb retweeted the column (for which I’m thankful) with the message, "Think bigger… "
Nearly one year later, we finally know what he means.
Sony just revealed plans for multiple Spidey spinoffs, including a Venom feature and films showcasing the Sinister Six. If anything, this news just confirms speculation many of us had after the latest ASM 2 trailer broke. I mean, Webb isn’t going to be allowed to include Doctor Octopus arms and Vulture wings unless the studio has plans to put them to good use. There’s a difference between a clever Easter egg, and a tease that needs to be followed through upon. Six is coming. We just don’t know when.
There was one name that caught my eye in the announcement by Sony today, and it has me salivating for the potential of future Spider-Man stories: Drew Goddard. He was mentioned alongside Spidey screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who already have collaborated on Spider-Man 3 and 4. But Goddard, from what we knew, has his name attached to another Marvel superhero… one who fought alongside Spider-Man often in the comics.
Goddard was hired to oversea a "Man Without Fear" series for Marvel on Netflix. By adding him to the braintrust of writers who are overseeing the future of the Spider-Man film franchise, doesn’t it make sense that the two Marvel heroes would team up? The Daredevil series is supposedly taking place in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, so having Spidey drop by to help take down mutual threats would be easy enough. And Spidey and Daredevil have teamed up in the comics numerous times, notably when Frank Miller was in charge of old Web head’s books.
Obviously, it would be a contractual headache to overcome the obstacles necessary to get Spider-Man and Daredevil on the same page. Sony owns the right to Peter Parker and his masked alter ego. Marvel got the rights to Daredevil back. But we are seeing franchise sharing all over the place, whether it’s Paramount selling Indiana Jones to Disney or… well, Star Wars going to Disney, as well. OK, so Disney owns everything. But as we look at the landscape of the post-Spidey-spinoff news, I think the presence of Goddard in both Spider-Man and Daredevil’s creative universe’s could mean that the man who helped redefine the horror genre with The Cabin in the Woods could deliver a spectacular team-up movie somewhere down the line! Do you agree?
