Amazing Spider-Man 3: Director reveals scrapped plans for Andrew Garfield sequel

Before Sony Pictures struck a deal with Disney to bring Spider-Man into the world of The Avengers, Andrew Garfield was enjoying his brief run as the comic book wall-crawler in a couplet of films from director Marc Webb. Plans were in motion to continue the story with a Sinister Six spin-off film and The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Those plans never came to fruition, but Webb recently opened up about what would have been his attempt at a Spidey expanded universe.

"We were talking about the Sinister Six," Webb told Den of Geek of the film about Spider-Man's super-villain squad. "They were going to make a Sinister Six movie before we did [The Amazing Spider-Man 3]. But I wanted…Chris Cooper was going to come back and play the Goblin."

Cooper appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Norman Osborn, the head of Oscorp, the father of Peter Parker's friend Harry Osborn, and the man who traditionally becomes the Green Goblin in the comics. The character was thought to have died, leaving room for Harry (Dane DeHaan) to become the villain. The film also included Easter eggs for characters like Vulture and Doctor Octopus as teases for Sinister Six.

There was even supposed to be a scene, ultimately cut from the final film, with a jar containing Norman's head. Speaking to how he would have brought back the character for a third film, Webb said, "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."

The filmmaker also confirmed, "[Norman] was going to be the main villain. He was going to come out and lead the Sinister Six. We had talked about Vulture a little bit, too, actually."

Drew Goddard had been tapped to helm Sinister Six, but the combination of poor critical reviews for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, low box-office numbers, and the Sony email hacking scandal upended these plans. Now Spider-Man's cinematic world looks much different.

Tom Holland debuted as teenager Peter Parker in Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, marking the landmark collaboration between Sony and Disney. The actor returned for his solo film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and will be seen in next year's Avengers: Infinity War.

Sony is already prepping films based on Spider-Man characters to be separate from this Marvel Cinematic Universe: Tom Hardy has been cast as Eddie Brock in Venom, scheduled for release on Oct. 5, 2018; and Gina Prince-Bythewood was also enlisted to helm Silver and Black, based on characters Silver Sable and Black Cat.