海角大神

This past week, reports began to circulate that the聽Amazing Spider-Man聽spinoff聽Sinister Six聽鈥� a film about聽a team of Spider-Man super villains -聽might be in serious danger of being cancelled. Not so, it turns out, as Sony/Columbia Pictures has announced an official Fall 2016 release date for writer/director Drew Goddard鈥檚聽Sinister Six聽movie. Meanwhile,聽Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2聽director Marc Webb鈥檚聽Amazing Spider-Man 3聽has been pushed to 2018 (presumably, the May 2018 spot that Sony is currently holding onto).聽

Goddard stepped down as the showrunner for Marvel Studios鈥� upcoming聽Daredevil聽series a couple months back, in order to concentrate his efforts on getting聽Sinister Six聽ready. However,聽recent comments聽made by certain other prominent members of the聽Amazing Spider-Man听蹿谤补苍肠丑颈蝉别听鈥渂rain trust鈥�聽鈥� Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, to be exact 鈥� indicated that Sony鈥檚 original plans for the series鈥� future may鈥檝e changed (worst case scenario, that the blueprints for building聽a Shared Spider-Man movie universe聽may鈥檝e been abandoned), in reaction to聽Amazing Spider-Man 2鈥榮 overall shaky critical reception and box office drop-off from its predecessor.

Sony, however, has now revealed its hand of cards, not so coincidentally as the聽2014 International Comic-Con聽gets up and running.聽Sinister Six聽now has a November 11th, 2016 release date 鈥� one week before WB releases its Harry Potter spinoff,聽Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them. The month of November has long served franchises such as Harry Potter and James Bond well (among others), while聽Thor: The Dark World聽proved last year that superhero movies can also thrive at the box office during that frame.

However, there are some pressing questions to ask about聽Sinister Six. For one, will the movie feature Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spidey, seeing how the actor previously said he鈥檚 onlycontracted for three Spider-Man films聽- and if the final movie that鈥檚 part of Garfield鈥檚 current deal is meant to be聽Amazing Spider-Man 3聽(as would make the most sense), does that mean聽Sinister Sixwon鈥檛 actually feature聽his Spider-Man?

Likewise, what big name actors are gong to be recruited to fill聽the Sinister Six roster聽that already includes Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the Harry Osborn Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) 鈥� not to mention, potentially Felicity Jones as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, while Jamie Foxx as Electro remains a (slight) possibility? And how will the聽turnout for a聽Wild Bunch-style movie with Spider-Man villains compare to other Spider-Man films, especially聽given that the moviegoing public has shown聽signs of Spidey fatigue of late? (Not to mention, there鈥檚 still that聽Venom聽movie, waiting in the wings鈥�)聽Thesustainability of a Spider-Man Shared Universe聽is questionable, to say the least.

Having said all that, the good news is that聽releasing聽Sinister Six聽before聽Amazing Spider-Man 3frees up the latter from having to devote too much of its running time to world-building (a laThe聽Amazing Spider-Man 2). Plus, Marvel Studios聽left the May 2018 frame聽open for Sony鈥檚 nextAmazing Spider-Man聽installment 鈥� which means that Webb鈥檚 film will have more time to develop, fewer larger franchise duties to fulfill,聽and聽less direct competition to face at the box office.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.