2012 felt like a transformative time for comic-book movies (for better and worse). Christopher Nolan ended his insanely popular Batman trilogy. A group of superheroes got together onscreen. I forget the group’s name, but they wanted to … revenge something? I’m pretty sure there have been a few sequels. We also got a new Spider-man, which feels smaller on the scale now as we know how those films shook out, but it was a huge deal at the time. Andrew Garfield stepped into the web slinger’s tights, and I loved his take on the eponymous hero.
I was 23 and thought I knew everything when The Amazing Spider-Man hit screens. Tobey Maguire was out, man! A new Spidey was in town; he shared my first name and told jokes. He was tall, which I’m always a fan of, and despite being a little cool for dweeby Peter Parker, I was all in. I snatched up the Blu-ray and accompanying video game. It was a great time to be a Spider-Man fan and the hype continued toward the sequel, which earned over $700 million at the box office and was considered a huge failure.
I’ll just be honest and say that I enjoyed the second Amazing Spider-Man film. That said, I’ve only seen it once. I went with my then-girlfriend (now wife) and one of my best friends. My wife had no idea what fate awaited Gwen Stacey and was shocked at the turn of events. The world-building felt fun, and I enjoyed the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Dane Dehaan. I’m aware that I could be “wrong” about the quality of the film, as I only saw it once and that was almost 13 years ago, but I had fun and so did my wife and as soon as we left we were told how wrong we were.
My best friend spent the train ride back refusing to understand why we enjoyed the movie (he’s a good dude, I swear, just very passionate). He wasn’t the only one who hated it either. Critical reception was rough but audiences seemed to enjoy it (if you believe CinemaScore). The movie pulled in almost three-fourths of a billion dollars and Sony announced two sequels. Then, those sequels were canceled and Spidey was recast within two years. Two years! The world (kind of) moved on, but how close did we get to a Garfield-led sequel? Surely Sony wouldn’t have announced sequels without at least one script in place, right?
When asked about the planned third film, writer Alex Kurtzman, who penned the second film with Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner, was blunt. “You know, we never wrote it,” the writer explained. “We never wrote it. I did 2 and that was it for me.” There is plenty to be inferred from Alex’s comments. Maybe he started developing the story. Perhaps there was an outline. There’s a chance he wasn’t approached at all. Regardless, it sure sounds like Sony put the cart before the horse.
That said, people are clamoring for a Garfield Spidey film more than ever. The actor’s return to the tights for No Way Home was well-received. There are exciting rumors that he will appear in the fourth… I want to say Retaliators(?), film. So, we may get more of the best actor to swing from a web in the future. It may not be a third solo film, but that may have never been the case anyway.