When you think about it, it's pretty rare for the same director to helm a full trilogy of modern superhero movies. Tim Burton only made two Batmans, Jon Favreau only made two Iron Mans, and Bryan Singer only made two X-Men - not to mention the incredibly long list of filmmakers who only got a shot to direct one film in a trilogy. There are some exceptions to this of course, two being Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) and Christopher Nolan (Batman), but today we learn that list is about to become one name longer. Variety is reporting that Marc Webb, director of The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, has made a deal with Sony to come back and direct The Amazing Spider-Man 3 for its June 2016 release date.
Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Sony's future plans for the wall crawling webslinger. In addition to having the hero getting three movies of his own, the studio is also developing a Sinister Six movie with Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard attached to write and possibly direct, and Alex Kurtzman is attached to make a film based around the fan favorite villain/anti-hero Venom. While those projects are definitely in development, neither one has secured a release date yet, so we don't know which one will be coming out first. That said, Sony's vision is very clear. As said by SPE Co-Chairman Amy Pascal, "We are expanding the Spider-Man universe into The Sinister Six and Venom, so that we have Spider-Man movies every year."
With his first Spider-Man movie Marc Webb earned a bit of a mixed reaction. He was unfortunately saddled with the responsibility of rebooting the entire franchise despite the fact that Raimi's films only came out a decade before, but he wound up doing a pretty decent job with the material and introduced a new and exciting version of the titular character.
The real test for Webb comes this May with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. One of the best things about watching this franchise develop has been seeing the director's detailed plan for a giant Spider-Man cinematic universe unfold, and some huge steps are expected to be taken in the first sequel. The filmmaker certainly has a lot on his plate, with Jamie Foxx's Electro, Dane DeHaan's Green Goblin and Paul Giamatti's Rhino all entering the fray, but the results have a very good chance of being really cool.
The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is expected to go into production this fall.
