Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ Franchise To Receive Spin-Off Films?

Sony rebooted the SPIDER-MAN franchise last year after Sam Raimi’s lucrative trilogy starring Tobey Maguire ran from 2002 to 2007. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was released in July 2012 and went on to gross over $700 Million worldwide and quickly lead to Sony green lighting the sequel, which is currently scheduled to hit theatres next May.

After Marvel Studios concurred cinema screens and created the third highest grossing film ever with THE AVENGERS, other studios are looking to expand their superhero film universes in a similar way. 20th Century Fox already have X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST on the way which will combine their X-Men cinematic universe, and pave the way for a rebooted franchise with future spin off’s and sequels in a coherent manner.

We have known for a while now that THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 will include various characters in order to plant seeds for future introductions of Rhino, Green Goblin, Black Cat and the Sinister Six. Sony have also announced the official release dates for both THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 4 for May 2016 and 2018. This shows that Sony are dedicated to fully exploring the cinematic possibilities of the SPIDER-MAN franchise, and expanding it to incorporate multiple characters and storylines as Marvel Studios has done with their AVENGERS-universe. Now in separate interviews both Sony Pictures Entertainment chief and co-chairman have hinted at spin-offs in store from everyone’s favourite wall crawler. Here is what co-chairman Amy Pascal has said:

“We are going to access Marvel’s full world of Spider-Man characters, so be on the lookout for new heroes and villains”.

Also here is what Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Michael Lynton has followed up with:

“We do very much have the ambition about creating a bigger universe around Spider-Man. There are a number of scripts in the works”.

And here’s the juicy part where Lynton states that Sony are:

“Working closely with Marvel and Disney”.

Very interesting indeed. Can we expect a SPIDER-MAN and AVENGERS crossover? probably not but we can hope and the fact that Sony are on good terms with Disney and Marvel can only be a good thing. In the mean time THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 will be released on 2nd May 2014 and stars Andrew Garfield once again as the title character, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti, Dane DeHaan and Chris Cooper.

Check back with The Hollywood News for more updates on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2.

Source: The Wrap, Deadline