TV & Movies

The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Everything we know

Lucy-Jo Finnighan
The final shot of The Amazing Spider-ManSony Pictures

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 had plenty of plans before it was scrapped by Sony, so here’s everything we know about Garfield’s cancelled film.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is finally out, and to say people have been looking forward to this movie would be an understatement. Like Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Spider-Verse franchise brought together an array of Spiders, which of course included Andrew Garfield‘s early 2010s take.

Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man franchise seemed like a great new spin on the character when the first film came out in 2012. Unfortunately, things didn’t continue this way. Andrew Garfield’s run as Peter Parker was cut short when Amazing Spider-Man 3 and its spin-off were scrapped by Sony. 

However, there were still plenty of plans for the threequel, and with Garfield cameoing in many recent Spider-Man projects, perhaps this could reboot his franchise. We at Dexerto – who have long defended the Amazing franchise – would like to see it, so here is the history of what could of been, and what still might be.

Is The Amazing Spider-Man 3 happening?

No, sadly The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is not happening as of writing. It seems like the closest thing we’ll get is Andrew Garfield’s appearance in the MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.

As we know, on February 10, 2015, before the MCU introduced Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Garfield’s run was cancelled, despite The Amazing Spider-Man 3 already being in the works.

This was due to a variety of factors, that being The Amazing Spider-Man 2 being received poorly by critics – it currently has a 51% score on Rotten Tomatoes – and underperforming at the Box Office, opening to just $91 million on its first weekend.

This was also during the time of the Fox-MCU-Disney debacle, and with Marvel wanting to bring Spider-Man into its cinematic universe, it seemed inevitable Garfield – who had been playing the role under Sony – would have to hang up the mask.

According to Cinema Blend, there was also bad blood between Garfield and Sony Executives. See, there was a major press conference for the third film in Brazil, for which Sony Boss Kaz Hirai flew out for, but Garfield did not, due to sickness by jetlag. Garfield’s absence apparently displeased the higher-up, which further pushed Sony to cancel the threequel.

Not only that, but the multiple spin-offs that were planned, such as the Sinister Six and Black Cat movies, were also canceled, with only the Venom films surviving the cull. Now that franchise has been joined by Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. And of course, the animated Spider-Verse films.

However, Garfield has since told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he’s “definitely open” to reprising the role again. “It would have to be something very unique, very special, and of service to the audience, of service to the character,” he added.

He then stated in the official art book of No Way Home, “The story never ends… Whether we film it or not, there’s a story happening in a universe somewhere, there’s endless potential with this character and other iterations. So yeah, he’s definitely out there doing something.”

Is there an Amazing Spider-Man 3 release date?

No, because as stated, there is no Amazing Spider-Man 3 on the way.

Although, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, did just release in cinemas last month, which features a cameo of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man in it.

Had The Amazing Spider-Man 3 actually happened, it would have been originally been set for release on June 19, 2016 – but was pushed back to 2018 – with The Sinister Six releasing on November 11, 2016. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 cast: Who would have worked on the movie?

For the threequel, both star Andrew Garfield and director Marc Webb were confirmed to return, as were writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner.

While love interest Gwen Stacy would not return due to her death at the end of the second movie, Shailene Woodley would arrive as Mary-Jane Watson. The actor had actually filmed some scenes for the sequel, but these moments were cut from the final product.

Chris Cooper, who played Norman Osborn, revealed to CBR that he would have had a “huge” role in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Paul Giamatti also revealed in an interview with Collider that he would have reprised his role as the Rhino. Denis Leary, aka the ghost of Captain Stacey, could have also appeared in the threequel.  

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 plot: What would the film have been about?

While there was no set-in-stone synopsis, a lot of ideas had been tossed around.

Norman Osborn, taking on the mantle of the Green Goblin, would have been a major factor of the threequel, despite having died in the second film. Webb shared with Den of Geek that Osborn was set to be the main villain, due to the fact that a plot point could have been the concept of a resurrection formula – which would have also explained the return of Captain Stacey.

A post-credits scene that was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured the frozen head of Norman Osborn, which follows what Webb explained to Den of Geek:

“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.”

The Goblin would have then become the leader of the Sinister Six, leading the Rhino and the Vulture – who would have also been antagonists in TAS 3 – amongst others.

Finally, the emotional crux of the film would have been Peter’s mental state as he struggled to move on from Gwen’s death, which would be made harder with the concept of resurrection at his fingertips.

Ultimately, for better or worse, the third film didn’t happen. For now, that’s everything we know about the film, and you can check out the rest of our current Spider-Man coverage below:

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