What We’ve Learned About The Amazing Spider-Man 2 From The First Month Of Marc Webb’s Tweets

Twitter really is a wonderful thing. It allows fans to catch a glimpse into the thoughts and day-to-day activities of their favorite actors and directors and it allows the film media an opportunity to have access to news that previously would've been impossible to get unless we were on set ourselves. Obviously some people involved with the entertainment industry use Twitter to connect with their fans much more frequently than others. One of those who has joined the more frequently camp is The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb. In case you've somehow missed Webb's account, he's been Tweeting a picture a day from the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, providing fans with a wide array of information to grasp at in hopes of finding out some secrets about the film. Of course, it's possible that Webb is just toying with all of Spidey's fans, giving no real information but making it appear like he is revealing what everyone wants to know. Regardless, he's proven that he's as savvy as any marketing department when it comes to building anticipation for a film, as people simply can't stop speculating what we're going to see in Webb's second take on the Spider-Man universe. Today is the film's 31st day of filming, meaning we've had a month's worth of pictures to ponder over. In honor of that one month mark, I've attempted to decode a bit of what we've seen in order to sum up what we've learned from Webb's tweets. Obviously I don't have a copy of the script in hand, nor am I a close personal friend of anyone involved with the film. I have however studied these pictures and poured through the many arcs of Spider-Man comics in hopes of making some sense out of what we've seen. So read on to find out what we've learned from the many Tweets of Marc Webb. At Least Part Of The Movie Is Being Shot On Film The very first Tweet we got from Webb confirmed that at least some part of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is going to be shot on film. The post has the hashtags #anamorphic #film and #philthecameraoperator and the picture is of Phil and his camera. In the age of digital, it's always nice to see something shot on film as many still prefer the look. This also means the 3D will be done in post-conversion as opposed to a film shot in 3D. What's most interesting about this is the previous film was shot digitally, and it's abnormal for a film franchise to make drastic alterations like that. I'm not sure how much this will effect the look of the film, but it's certainly something to keep in mind. Venom Is Somehow Involved Day 3 was the day that every Spider-Man fan on Twitter fell into a total frenzy. Webb Tweeted the above picture showing a locker with the number 14 on it. Simple enough right? Not at all. This is far from just a cool looking picture. This was the day that everyone realized there may be secrets to be found in Webb's cryptic posts. See, this locker looks eerily similar to a panel from one of the Spidey comics in which Venom is introduced. In case you aren't familiar, have a look at the panel below and compare it to the picture above. Far too similar to be a coincidence if you ask me. Thus the Venom rumours began to swirl. Fans started freaking out wondering how Electro, Rhino, and Venom were all going to fit into one film. They started freaking out about who was going to play Venom. They started freaking out that they would have to wait over a year to official see what this Tweet meant. There was pure pandemonium. Rioting in internet form went on for days as people began to delve into the details of this one image. But then, people looked at the Tweet again, and they started to realize it possibly has even more meaning than originally thought. There's a hashtag included with the picture: #happybirthday. I have to be honest here, the first few times I looked at the Tweet, I was so excited about the picture that I failed to even notice the text that accompanied it. Happy Birthday? What could that mean? Well one internet search gives a conclusion that doesn't seem like much of a stretch at all. This Tweet went out on February 6th. Dane DeHaan, aka Harry Osborn, was born February 6th. So if Webb's saying happy birthday, it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that it's to one of the stars of his film. But wait, if Webb is including a picture of a Venom-filled locker and saying happy birthday to DeHaan, does that mean that Harry Osborn becomes Venom in the next film? Gah! It's almost too much to take. And then there's more. The locker in the picture is number 14. It'd be too big of a stretch to assume that 14 is just Webb's favorite number or something along those lines, so there has to be a deeper significance. Well try this for deeper, issue #14 of Amazing Spider-Man is where the Green Goblin is introduced. Wait a second, Harry, as Venom, as the Green Goblin? Well one of DeHaan's other directors happened to refer to him as the Green Goblin. I originally dismissed that comment as the director misspeaking, but what if he actually knew what he was talking about and was letting serious information slip? There are a ton of possibilities as to what this picture is telling us, but regardless of the actual meaning, this was the moment that Webb really got people talking, and gained a ton of new Twitter followers in the process. Spidey Gets A New Suit On day 9, Webb took a break from his usual pictures to provide a short video. Short as in it's only 9 seconds long. But the text that accompanied the video link was #thebettertoseeyouwith. While some may have thought the big bad wolf would be making a cameo in the film, Webb did make comments that Spidey would be getting a new suit, and it would included larger eyes.These are indeed larger eyes, so Webb has followed through on his promise. Some sites have speculated about built-in sight technology. I'm going go ahead and dismiss that and say all Webb was getting at is the bigger eyes, but obviously, you never know. Since this image, we've also seen a picture of the entire suit, showing more of a classic look for Spidey. It's still unknown whether the film will start with him in this suit, or we'll see it progress similar to Batman's suit in the Christopher Nolan films. There are also some improved web-shooters, but the only pictures we've had of those are low quality images snapped from the set. The FBI Is Somehow Involved Spider-Man is truly an outlaw. The public doesn't like him, his villains obviously don't like him, and heck even the other superheroes are always fighting him. Well in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it looks like government may not be his biggest fan either. On day 11 Webb sent out a picture of two FBI agents pointing their badges into the camera. His hashtag for the day was #knocknock. So these agents are showing up uh... somewhere and investigating... something. Now there's a chance that they aren't interested in Spidey at all, there could be shading dealings going on at Oscorp or maybe they're after Max Dillon before he becomes Electro, or even after he becomes Electro. While we don't know why they're in the film, we can fairly safely assume that they are in the film, and not just investigating Webb while he's shooting this movie. Perhaps more details will surface soon about just how heavily they're involved. The Hobgoblin Could Be In The Film This claim is one of the bigger stretches I'm going to make in this article, but I'm going to include it anyway since I'd love to see it happen. Those who checked out my article about the villains I'd like to see for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 know that I didn't include Electro or Rhino, meaning I'm 0 for 2 on confirmed villains and I'm obviously horrible at being a Spider-Man fan. But those readers also know that I said my ideal villain for this film was the Hobgoblin to properly set up a Green Goblin battle in the third film. But what in Webb's Tweets has led some to believe the Hobgoblin shows up? Well check out the picture he sent out on day 22. I'm not even going to begin to speculate on what the actual picture could mean, but notice that date at the bottom. March 83. Something else significant to Spider-Man happened in March of 1983. That was the month that the Hobgoblin was introduced. The date isn't random, so it's hard to think of anything else that Webb could be getting at with this picture. Then again, the date is also at the bottom of a picture he sent out on day 19 showing his producers, so maybe it doesn't mean anything at all. This bit of speculation is one where I'm much more hopeful than confident. Ravencroft Makes An Appearance Webb's last Tweet of the month is one of his most revealing. On day 30 he sent out the above picture showing a directory of rooms at the Ravencroft Institute. For those who aren't as well versed in Spider-Man lore, Ravencroft is a prison where many of the supervillains that Spidey battles are housed. Carnage, the Chameleon, and the Jackal are all villains that were detained in Ravencroft, and in one arc John Jameson, son of J.J., worked there as a security chief. The question this picture raises, is just how many villains are we going to see in the film? This movie is already feeling like a bit of a villain overload with Electro, Rhino, and the potential villains of the Black Cat, the Hobgoblin, Venom, the Green Goblin, and Colm Feore maybe playing Vulture. But a trip to Ravencroft would undoubtedly show a ton more villains. It's actually a brilliant move if Webb wants to plant someone for the next film, but the problem is there would have to be a reason for these supervillains to appear considering the world set up in the first film didn't have a ton of evil masterminds running around. It'll be interesting to see how big of a role Ravencroft plays in the film, but all we know for now is it definitely shows up at some point. Webb Pays Attention To The Fans (And Is A Bit Of A Jerk) March 15th. Day 29. I log into Twitter, and as I always seem to do these days, go straight to Webb's profile. My hopes weren't high, as the last few days had all been pictures of various crew members, not revealing anything too juicy, but then as soon as his page loaded, my heart dropped. I'm not talking a slight jump, I'm talking I had to pick it up off the ground and repair the hole in my chair from where it fell through. The words that prompted such excitement? "Black Suit." This was it! A picture of a black-suited Spidey. He was already going to don the black suit! I had no idea how this was going to be worked into the plot, but I didn't care. I was so excited. This was what tons of fans wanted to see. Webb knows everyone is always speculating about it, and he's putting the speculation to rest. It was thrilling. Until I clicked on the picture... The picture above is what Webb tweeted. Ha frickin ha Marc. Real funny. Instead of a black-suited Spidey we get some guy at Oscorp... in a black suit. I can picture Webb sitting at his computer, hiding his giggles behind his hand as he reads all the Tweets from fans who had their excitement come crashing down. Jerk move Webb. Marc Webb Is A Genius (And Loves His Crew) Alright, I know we've all known Webb is a genius since (500) Days Of Summer hit theaters, but these Tweets prove that he's more than just a genius when it comes to directing his films. He's a marketing superstar. He's made the wait for this film way more exciting than I imagined it could be, and made it the source of more speculation than any other film currently in production. He's turned this film into a J.J. Abrams-esque event, where people know so little, but speculate and think they know so much. As I said, absolutely everything I've posted today could be completely wrong. I don't think it is, or else I wouldn't have written it, but I still could be way off base. None of us actually know except for those involved with the film. I'd also like to point out how many pictures of random people in the crew Webb has posted. He's showing his appreciation for those who aren't usually appreciated, but are still vital to the film-making process. From Ozzy the electrician to Joel the prop guy, Webb has garnered re-Tweets of pictures of crew members that the majority of fans would have never thought about otherwise. A classy move from a mastermind of his craft. We still have a long, long time until the film comes out (it hits theaters May 2, 2014), meaning it'll be a while until any of this speculation is confirmed. That also means there's plenty of more time for Webb to tweet more pictures and reveal more about what he has planned. Perhaps we'll have enough revealed in the next month that I can do another one of these posts in 31 days. If that's the case, be sure to check back and we can try to decode these cryptic messages together. Until then, get your noses in your Spidey comics and try to find something out that I couldn't. If you happen to do that, be sure to share your findings and predictions in the comments section, because after all, what's the fun in going to a movie if you don't know exactly what's going to happen beforehand? What are your thoughts on The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Let us know in the comments below.