Marc Webb has revealed what his plans were for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. The (500) Days of Summer director boarded the Spider-Man franchise in the early 2010s after Sony Pictures decided to reboot the series rather than continue producing additional sequels with Sam Raimi at the helm. The first installment -- The Amazing Spider-Man, starring The Social Network's Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man -- released in 2012 and breathed new life into the franchise that had stalled after Raimi's chastised Spider-Man 3 hit theaters in 2007.

The Amazing Spider-Man was better received than the previous Spidey installment, though many people believed that the film hadn't lived up to the expectations set forth particularly by Raimi's first two chapters (which starred Tobey Maguire as the eponymous superhero). Despite grossing more than $750 million at the worldwide box office, the movie still pulled in less than each of Raimi's movies (even when disregarding ticket price inflation), yet the studio thought it was enough to justify a sequel. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 released two years later, and the fact that it performed worse -- both critically and commercially -- ended up killing the franchise.

Shortly after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hit theaters, Sony Pictures canceled plans to produce The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (and possibly a fourth installment) in favor of sharing the web-slinging superhero with Marvel Studios. In an interview with Den of Geek, Webb briefly discussed what his plans were for the third installment, saying that Chris Cooper would have returned as Norman Osborn, except this time he would be playing the Green Goblin.

"Yeah, we were talking about the Sinister Six. They were going to make a Sinister Six movie before we did the third one. But I wanted...Chris Cooper was going to come back and play the Goblin. We were going to freeze his head, and then he was going to be brought back to life. And then there was that character called The Gentleman. We had some notions about how to do it, but I think maybe we were thinking too far ahead when we started building in those things. But it was a fun exercise. I look back very fondly on those days."

The Sinister Six in Marvel comics

In addition to making two additional installments, Sony Pictures originally planned on making a Sinister Six movie, featuring the villains introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and that includes Cooper's Osborn. The actor had a minor role in the second installment, which focused more on his son, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). However, Cooper would have returned for the sequel as the main villain before presumably reappearing in the Sinister Six movie, based on the supervillain team of the same name.

"Well, that was going to be the main villain. He was going to come out and lead the Sinister Six. We had talked about Vulture a little bit too, actually."

Although that didn't happen, comic book fans did finally get to see the Vulture (who was also discussed for Raimi's Spider-Man 4) in live-action, for the character appeared in Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming (the first solo Spidey installment within the Marvel Cinematic Universe) earlier this summer, played by acclaimed actor Michael Keaton. Despite Sony Pictures not pursuing non-MCU Spidey movies anymore, they still have plans to develop their Spidey universe, beginning with Ruben Fleischer's Venom, starring Tom Hardy.

Next: Homecoming Passes Both Amazing Spider-Man Movies at U.S. Box Office

Source: Den of Geek

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