Sony has revealed its big plans to expand the Spider-Man franchise beyond the super hero himself into a larger Avengers-like movie universe. It has done so by officially announcing spinoff movies for Venom and The Sinister Six.
IGN reports Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jrff Pinkner, Ed Solomon and Drew Goodard will collaborate on overseeing the "developing story over several films" Sony said, adding they "Have formed a franchise brain trust to expand the universe for the brand and to develop a continuous tone and thread throughout the films."
The film will be produced in conjunction with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach and director Marc Webb, who has previously worked on The Amazing Spider-Man and the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Kurtzman, Orci and Solomon will write the Venom story that Kurtzman will also direct. Meanwhile, Goodard will write and possibly direct the Sinister Six film. The original villains to make up the evil team of bad guys in the comics was lead by Doctor Octopus and included Vulture, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio and Sandman. Goodard will certainly have his hands full with Marvel titles in the coming months as he has been announced as the showrunner for Marvel Studios' Daredevil TV series for Netflix.
"The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio's greatest assets. We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc, Avi and Matt have begun to explore in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. We believe that Marc, Alex, and Drew have uniquely exciting visions for how to expand the Spider-Man universe in each of these upcoming films," said Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgard.
This lends some credence to rumors from earlier this week from an interview with Spider-Man himself Andrew Garfield who said that he was signed on for a third movie but had nothing to do with the decision for a fourth film or any expanded universe content. While the contract simply may not have been hammered out, another possibility that many people speculated on was that, like in the comics, Parker would be killed off in the third movie, making way for an expanded universe. However, that is completely the stuff of speculation and rumor at this point.
