It’s easy to forget, particularly in the excitement of the new Peter Parker’s reveal in Captain America: Civil War, that Sony and Marc Webb initially intended to make a longer Spider-Man series. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was supposed to come out this summer, and though plenty of fans were happy enough to see the would-be trilogy cut short after two films, it’s difficult not to wonder what kind of film we might have been going to see this summer.
As we’ve discussed previously, the Webb films differed fairly significantly from the “Amazing Spider-Man” comics upon which they were supposedly based. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of plot point similarities, but by no means did Sony and Webb create exact adaptations. As tends to be the case with superhero cinema, they merely used some concepts and focal characters from that particular strain of Spidey comics as inspiration and then crafted the films they wished to make.
Their independence actually started right off the bat when The Amazing Spider-Man presented a more mature Peter Parker focused largely on “real world” concerns. As iconic as the title “Amazing Spider-Man” is, some forget that it’s actually the oldest Spider-Man tale there is. To that point, an online slot machine game called “The Amazing Spider-Man Slot” is described as hailing from the original story of Peter Parker and displays graphics reminiscent of old comics. As a slot arcade game, it’s a relatively simple depiction of Spider-Man and his nemeses (such as Venom), but there’s an argument to be made that even this game was more closely tied to the original story than Marc Webb’s first film.
The early issues of “The Amazing Spider-Man” focused largely on the adolescent concerns of a deeply flawed teenage superhero: school bullying, a part-time job as the photographer for the Daily Bugle, and romantic entanglements. While the film did touch on high-school concerns, it pretty much catapulted Peter Parker right into superhero-sized conflicts and high drama. It’s understandable—they have to sell tickets, and moviegoers expect something more like Iron Man than The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. That being said, it felt disconnected from its primary comic sources. This is also why many legitimate Spider-Man comics fans were thrilled to hear that Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker would showcase more of a focus on youth. Despite the fact that we’ve seen multiple Spider-Man origin stories on the big screen, we’ve never really focused on him as a teenager.
At any rate, the tendency of Sony and Marc Webb to go their own way with their Spider-Man story makes it pretty difficult to guess what The Amazing Spider-Man 3 may have looked like, at least in terms of identifying comic book influence. But one analysis took the time to collect some quotes from actors involved in the franchise, and it they had to say about a possible third film was mildly troubling.
Andrew Garfield, a polarizing Peter Parker who was deeply attached to the role, indicated that he was involved with the script and bounced ideas back and forth with would-be screenwriter Alex Kurtzman. The two seemed to be delving into some dark places to depict Parker’s struggles to cope with the tragic events at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which were mostly taken from the comic issue “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”). That’s all well and good and sounds perfectly natural. But Denis Leary, who played Captain Stacy, made things sound a little crazier when he indicated that there would have been some kind of regeneration formula that would have allowed Parker to bring back the people he’d lost. The Spider-Man comics dealt with some dark and twisted stuff, and even cloning at various points, but did anyone really want a zombie Gwen Stacy on the big screen? Probably not.
Of course, we’ll never know what might have been, but based on the little evidence we have about the abandoned project, it may be for the best that Webb’s series was cut short. Fans are perfectly happy with the Tom Holland version of Peter Parker that now exists in the MCU, and it sounds as if The Amazing Spider-Man 3 might have eschewed comics in favor of crazy.
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And could we add a “The” to the article title as well? The theoretical movie is “THE Amazing Spider-Man 3”, not “Amazing Spider-Man 3”
Also, there’s no hyphen in http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com. Please get right on that. 🙂
I realize this is the internet so worrying about grammar is annoying, but could we change the subject of this article to the proper “could’ve” instead of the incorrect “could of?”
I’m just glad that Webb can finally return to work on the first sequel that he wanted to make: “(501) Days of Summer”.
I’m with Mark on being glad that this particular story chain is over. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone’s chemistry is one of the biggest selling points of the Webb saga, and I think that, had Gwen not come back and Peter had gotten together with MJ or Felicia, the movie would have suffered because-
A) Peter and Gwen’s relationship was so well built up and had such a likable chemistry that I don’t think any romance in any other superhero film has really done themselves justice.
B) It would take them a whole other movie to establish these other characters and this would drag down the larger narrative to explore or even just exposit their new significant other.
I’m just sad that we never got the Peter’s Dad scene in the final cut, because, even though it really makes no sense, Garfield puts on a really good show. I dunno, I feel Sony really botched the franchise by trying to reboot it in less than five years after Emo Peter, but as somebody who reads Amazing Spider-Man, I’m going to go into Homecoming with CautiousOptimismTM.
@Mark: Lookin forward to those classic characters like Peter’s new lady friend Michelle and BFF Ganke-like
It’s always been *Aunt* May, not grandma May. And Marissa Tomei is in her 50s. Never understood why the argument’s being made that this is unbelievable.
One of the problems with figuring out what they would have done is that they had a history of not knowing even during the shoot what the film would be.
The first Amazing Spider-Man had some reshoots, to the extent that an encounter between the Lizard and Irrfan Khan’s character was cut out, as well as an advertised scene where the Lizard gloated to Spider-Man that he knew the secret of Peter’s parents (in the final cut, Peter never learned what Connors knew.)
The second Amazing Spider-Man cut Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane. There was also supposed to be more with Felicity Jones. And then there was the ending with Peter’s dad.
I’m one of those who are glad that the series ended. The focus of the first two movies was lost in this big build up of Peter Parker’s parents and I really could care less about them. Give me classic characters and classic situations and I am as happy as can be shelling out ticket money to watch the movie.
BD, I don’t think we have enough information to know if this storyline would have been crazy, or just poorly executed. If Denis Leary’s comment’s are accurate, (and that is a big IF), it could be safe to assume that we might have gotten the beginning’s of the Clone Saga, with a “regenerated” Gwen. I think Sony would have done anything to keep Emma Stone in the franchise, and this would have made a natural comics connection.
Instead we get a rebooted franchise, (again…) with a super young Peter Parker (Tom Holland is promising) and a too young to believe Aunt May with Marisa Tormei.