Unmade Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man Movies: Everything to Know

With a fourth Spider-Man film starring Tom Holland on the way, the days when the web-slinger wasn’t a fully integrated part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seem long ago. But just a decade ago, plans were afoot to make Andrew Garfield’s take on Peter Parker the center of his very own cinematic universe.

While they didn’t come to fruition, with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 now streaming and airing all this month on SYFY, it’s the perfect time to revisit what could have been. 

What would Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3 have been about?

Prior to the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony Pictures was confident about the future of the series. In June 2013, nearly a year before the second film’s release, the studio already set release dates for third and fourth installments in 2016 and 2018, respectively. However, upon its May 2014 release, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ultimately saw mixed reception. Reshuffling their plans, Sony moved back the planned release date for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 to 2018, with no set release date for a fourth film. Marc Webb, director of the first two Amazing films, said he would return to direct a third but not a fourth installment. 

A third installment would have continued to expand on the conspiracy plot line hinted at in the first two films, with Peter Parker uncovering what happened to his parents, and the involvement of the villainous Gustav Fiers (Michael Massee). Fiers, also known in the comics as supervillain The Gentleman, seemed to be the lynch pin in future plot lines for the series. 

At the beginning of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) succumbs to a genetic illness. His son, Harry (Dane DeHaan) wants to escape it at any cost, eventually leading him to become the Green Goblin. In the film’s final scenes, Harry Osborn is seen conspiring with Fiers to create a team of villains, including the Rhino (Paul Giamatti), who faces off against Spider-Man in the film’s final scene. This team, likely the Sinister Six from the comics, would also have included Dr. Octopus and the Vulture, as metallic tentacles and wings are visible in the background of the film. Indeed, a spinoff entitled Sinister Six was announced in April 2014 for a 2016 release, with writer and director Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods, Bad Times at the El Royale) attached. After forming in a film of their own, the team seemed poised to be the biggest threat to Spider-Man in his third film.

Beyond our standard lineup of supervillains, the Sinister Six may have featured an unexpected teammate: Norman Osborn’s severed head. While the scene was cut from the film’s theatrical release, a planned post-credits scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would have featured Fiers speaking to Osborn’s cryogenically preserved head, indicating that we had not seen the last of him. Leaked images from the scene were shared by IGN back in 2014, and Cooper shared in interviews that he would have a larger role in a third movie.

In a 2015 interview with IGN, Denis Leary, who played Captain George Stacy, shared that he could’ve also returned in a third film –  despite his character having passed away in the first. How, you ask? “There was this idea,” Leary said, “that Spider-Man would be able to take this formula and regenerate the people in his life who had died.” From a massive supervillain team to raising the dead, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 sounds like one of the wildest superhero movies we never got to see. 

What spinoffs of The Amazing Spider-Man were planned?

Beyond Sinister Six, a whole connected universe of Amazing Spider-Man spinoff films was also in the works. Venom, starring Tom Hardy as the titular antihero, was one that eventually ended up being made, though reworked to take part in its own universe without any explicit allusions to Spider-Man, and with different writers and directors than initially announced. In August 2014, Deadline announced that Lisa Joy (Westworld, Reminiscence), was attached to a spinoff centered on the Spider-Man universe’s female heroes. Few details were made public on that potential project, but it may have featured a return for Felicity Jones, who appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in a brief part as Felicia Hardy, the civilian identity of the antiheroine Black Cat. 

The planned spinoffs weren’t limited to Spider-Man’s superpowered friends, either. In November 2014, rumors spread that Sony was developing a movie centered on Peter Parker’s Aunt May, played in the Amazing films by Sally Field. This film would supposedly not star Field, but instead, feature an espionage-centric plot set in the 1960s during May’s younger years. 

Of course, beyond a dramatically reworked Venom, none of these spinoffs ended up coming to fruition, as in February 2015, Sony and Marvel Studios famously reached a deal to bring the wall-crawler into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rather than loop Garfield’s take on the character into the MCU, the role was recast with Tom Holland, who, at just 19, would be the first actual teenager to portray the famously high-school-based hero. Holland went on to debut in Captain America: Civil War, and star in a trilogy of his own. 

However, this wouldn’t be the last we saw of Garfield’s Peter Parker. In 2021, he made a surprise appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside Tobey Maguire’s iteration from Sam Raimi’s 2000s trilogy, as two alternate universe versions of Spider-Man who appear to help Holland’s take on the hero. Fans rejoiced to see Garfield don the red and blue tights again, and his performance immediately reminded us what made his portrayal of Spider-Man great. He even showcased some of the emotional development that would have likely been central to The Amazing Spider-Man 3, as he processes his guilt and loss following the death of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). 

With the Amazing series done, Sony continued with their plans to create a series of films based on Spider-Man characters, including a Venom trilogy, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter. These films, dubbed Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, have faced mixed to outright negative reception. Notably, though, they do contain plenty of ideas that may have started life as Amazing spinoffs, from the focus on villains to Madame Web’s inclusion of a younger Uncle Ben Parker (Adam Scott). 

With multiverses, spinoffs, and sequels galore, the current world of Spider-Man cinema is a bit of a tangled web. While Garfield’s tenure as Spidey was cut short, not reaching its full potential, fans still have two full movies to enjoy his wisecracking, optimistic take on the iconic hero in all its glory, one that, over a decade later, stands as a version of Spider-Man that’s all its own. 

The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are now available via the SYFY App and will be appearing on SYFY soon; check the schedule here!