By now, we all know that The Amazing Spider-Man was a hit at the box office, making more than $751 million worldwide. Given the mega-success of the film, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were a sure bet to return and reprise their roles of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy.
While the film’s stars were a hot commodity, there were rumors earlier this year that director Marc Webb wouldn’t be returning to direct the sequel. Mainly, it was because Webb still owed Fox Searchlight another film and he had to fulfill that contraction. The production schedule of the Fox Searchlight film would’ve conflicted with the filming of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, thus making Webb unavailable for the film.
Thankfully, a solution had been found. Webb could direct The Amazing Spider-Man 2 if he agreed to helm two more films for Fox Searchlight instead of one. Now that that’s been settled, Emma Stone is also in talks to return to the blockbuster franchise and is expected to reprise her role as Gwen Stacy.
The announcement comes from Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, and Hannah Minghella, president of production for the studio. In a press release, Belgrad said:
“We could not be more confident in the direction we are taking this new Spider-Man storyline and we are tremendously excited to be ramping up production again with Marc at the helm and Andrew continuing on as Peter Parker. We can’t wait to share what we have in store for Peter and Spider-Man with audiences worldwide.”
The new film will begin production in early 2013 with the film scheduled to be released in 3D on May 2nd, 2014. Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner will write the screenplay based on a previous draft by James Vanderbilt.
Despite The Amazing Spider-Man being a reboot, I thought it was great. I think at first people were put-off by the idea of a Spider-Man reboot only 10 years after the original Spidey films came out but the chemistry that Stone and Garfield had on-screen really helped, as did Webb’s exciting direction.
So, now that it’s official, are you all happy that Webb and company are returning for The Amazing Spider-Man 2?