Marc Webb Reveals His Regrets About 'The Amazing Spider-Man' and What the Third Movie Would Have Held

If there's one reason we have to thank The Amazing Spider-Man films, it's that Spider-Man has now joined the MCU. Whatever you thought of The Amazing Spider-Man duology, it's because of these two films that Marvel's flagship hero is back where he belongs and is able to appear alongside the rest of the MCU heroes. Spider-Man: Homecoming was met with solid acclaim and many fans would argue it's the best Spider-Man film yet. But it all could have been so different.

The appropriately named Marc Webb was the man trusted with rebooting Sony's #SpiderMan universe and he selected Andrew Garfield as the actor to climb the walls in red spandex. While The Amazing Spider-Man was met with generally favorable reviews, the sequel had its fair share of criticism. Because The Amazing Spider-Man 2 tried to fit so much into the film and set up so many future films, it lost focus somewhat and became disjointed in places—thanks (again), Avi Arad.

Speaking to Den of Geek, #MarcWebb spoke of his pride in the films he created:

"I was never pushed around. A lot of smart people had a lot of strong opinions about things, but it was my movie. Both of them were. It's more complicated, simply because there's a lot on the line. There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration. But I had a really good time making those movies. They're very difficult. I would approach them differently now than I did, but I feel really grateful for it and pretty uncynical about it. These people are all my friends, you know what I mean? Everybody wanted to make a great movie."

While much of the criticism for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 revolved around the once again too complicated plot, Webb states that the finished movie was the one he intended to make and that he didn't let any outside influences meddle with his vision.

As he hadn't directed a big superhero film before TASM, however, there was obviously a learning curve involved and he's clearly learned from his experience. He goes on to explain how he'd do things differently if he were given another opportunity:

"Well, I think I'd just take more time making those movies. But that goes into accepting, when you sign up for it, making clear what you're willing to accept. I didn't know how to build a movie like that when I was starting off. So I think I'd be more careful about that now."

The Future Of The Franchise

While many praised Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the web-slinger, #Marvel elected to bring in Tom Holland to bring Peter Parker to life once more. While we'll never get to see Garfield wearing the Spidey suit again, it's intriguing to see where the series would have gone. Marc Webb revealed some details about the plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3:

"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."

While we already know that there were some pretty out-there plans for TASM3 involving Peter's blood reviving Gwen and George Stacy and the decapitated Goblin head, this is the first time Webb has made comment about it. One thing he makes clear is that The Gentleman would have had a significant role in the future of the series. He already appeared to Curt Conners in the post-credit scene in The Amazing Spider-Man and he returned to speak to Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, so it's plain to see that he was the one pulling the strings in the background.

Corporate Imperatives

But as the #MCU continued to grow, Marvel's desire to include the webslinger grew along with it. The fans also wanted Spider-Man to be able to interact with the rest of the MCU and because of this, Marvel did their best to try and make this happen. There were obviously some rumblings about this behind the scenes, as Webb clearly felt like something was afoot:

"I think it was a very difficult time for Sony because of the hack and because Marvel wanted the character back, and there are all sorts of corporate imperatives, but that didn't have a huge impact on how we made the movie. Maybe it accelerated the timeline, which made things difficult, but that's something I accepted. That's the nature of what those movies are."

Whatever was going on behind the scenes, we can safely say that things have turned out better than anyone could have imagined. #SpiderManHomecoming delivered the perfect version of Peter Parker on film, and potentially the best Spider-Man film to date. While the mid-credit scene clearly shows that there are still plans for the #SinisterSix film, it will probably be a lot different to the one we would have had.