Although the Spider-Man deal between Sony and Marvel was a nerdy blessing to comic book fans, it did mean that Sony had to abandon their earlier plans for the wall-crawler. Bringing the superhero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe meant scrapping their never-realized Spider-Man cinematic universe. Chief among the losses was The Amazing Spider-Man 3, which would have been the conclusion of director Marc Webb’s Spider-Man trilogy. Fortunately, Webb doesn’t have any hard feelings about not getting the chance to finish his story.
Webb has previously gone on record saying that he’s happy Spider-Man is part of the MCU, and he recently told Slashfilm that he doesn’t have any bittersweet feelings about only getting to tell a two-part story. Said the director,
No, I’m very excited for all the folks at Marvel and what they’re going to do with that character. I think he belongs in that universe and there’s a real excitement to see what they come up with. Maybe we’ll all be on a panel someday, Sam, me and whoever directs it. [Jon Watts was announced as director after this interview.]
The Amazing Spider-Man series was the second attempt at telling Spider-Man’s story on the big screen, following Sam Raimi’s trilogy from 2002 to 2007. While Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 provided a satisfying conclusion to Tobey Maguire’s version of the web-slinger, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 left a big plot thread dangling by hinting at the formation of the Sinister Six. The plan was to eventually release a spinoff starring the super villain team in 2016, with The Amazing Spider-Man 3 following in 2018. There were also movies in development starring Venom and a female hero, respectively. Evidently, Sony is still interested in making these spinoffs (which would now take place in the MCU), but since they’ve been indefinitely delayed, whether they’ll actually ever be made is a mystery.
As for The Amazing Spider-Man 3, it was rumored several months back that one of the ideas being kicked around was Peter obtaining a formula that would allow him to bring his loved ones back from the dead. Yeah, that sounds pretty kooky. Again, that plot idea was never official, but according to Andrew Garfield, at minimum the audience would have seen Peter Parker still coming to terms with the death of Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy.
The Amazing Spider-Man series is dead, but Sony’s partnership with Marvel heralds a new beginning for the everyone’s favorite neighborhood superhero. Tom Holland will make his debut as the MCU’s Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War on May 6, 2016, and he’ll star in Jon Watts’ new Spider-Man solo film on July 27, 2017.
