Critics and audiences may have differing opinions about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (and, let’s face it, Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchise in general), but most people seem to agree that Andrew Garfield is a great Peter Parker. As many problems as the rebooted franchise has, Garfield’s casting isn’t one of them. Sony seems to know this, and is reportedly hoping to keep him in the Spidey suit for the foreseeable future.
According to The Daily Star, Garfield has been offered a multi-million dollar deal to play the friendly neighborhood wall crawler through 2020. Apparently, a “senior source” at Columbia Pictures said the following:
“Andrew is already contracted to make two more films for release in 2015 and 2016. But we are looking to tie him to the role for as many as a further four pictures given the huge success the franchise is enjoying. The part is pretty much his for as long as he chooses.”
Of course, their source goes unnamed and at this time there has been no official confirmation to back this report up. So, for the time being, consider this a rumor, and one that requires a bit of dissecting.
First of all, there is no Spider-Man movie scheduled for 2015 (that we know of). The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is scheduled for release in 2016, so could this source be referring to the Sinister Six spin-off, or the Venom solo movie? That’s definitely a possibility, considering that a Spider-Man cameo would likely happen in one or both of those films.
The Daily Star also reports that Garfield is “being offered a box office profit-sharing deal to stay in the Spidey suit for another six years.” That pushes his tenure to 2020, which means he’d be around for The Amazing Spider-Man 4 and 5, if the studio keeps up with the 2-year breaks between installments.
In recent interviews, Garfield had expressed a desire to someday pass the torch to a new Spider-Man, and mentioned that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would be his last outing. A multi-million dollar deal could absolutely change the young actor’s mind though, and convince him to stick around a few more years. Plus, this would mean that we’d be avoiding an inevitable recasting of the part or rebooting of the entire franchise for a while longer, which will be met with a huge sigh of relief from fans.
As I said, this is still unconfirmed, so let’s wait and see what happens before we start getting ahead of ourselves. However, it is an exciting piece of news, and if true it means that Sony is interested in keeping their best asset around for as long as they can.
Tell us, would you like to see Andrew Garfield play Spider-Man for six more years? Or are you already tired of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise? Let us know in the comments section.
