We like what Sony’s doing with Spidey, but I’m personally very interested in what co-writers Alex Kurtzmann and Roberto Orci have in mind for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which already boasts an amazing cast — not only are Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Sally Field reprising their roles as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy and Aunt May, respectively, but the film will also present several new villains such as Rhino (Paul Giamatti), Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) and Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx), while Dane DeHaan will play Osborn’s son Harry. Other cast members include Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson and B.J. Novak in an unspecified role.
Fans complained about the growing quantity of antagonists and expressed concern about the film’s similarities to Sam Raimi’s infamous Spider-Man 3, which was heavily criticized for featuring too many (poorly cast) bad guys.
Nevertheless, MTV recently spoke with Kurtzman and Orci, who promised the villains will serve their purpose and are not there just for show. Kurtzman said:
“I think you have to go into it and say, ‘is this character essential to the story or are you just throwing him in for no reason whatsoever’, [and] we would never, ever, ever dare to do anything other than what felt like it was organic to the flow of the story.”
Fair enough. I’m hoping these guys, along with virtuoso director Marc Webb, will deliver a sequel that tops the first entry in the series, which should be quite a challenge. Even though The Amazing Spider-Man received a slightly mixed reaction from other comic book fans, I was truly impressed with its origin story, which I found to be vastly superior to the one in the Sam Raimi-helmed movie Spider-Man. Besides, let’s just all agree that Andrew Garfield is a better Peter Parker than Toby Maguire could ever hope to be.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is slated to hit theaters on May 4, 2014.
