After all the heat The Dark Knight and Iron Man generated last summer, the Spider-Man brand seems not only to have surrendered its credentials as our biggest comic-to-film franchise but also its place in the public imagination. Iron Man is positioned to take the escapist crown, Batman has the artistic reigns, so where does that leave Spider-Man, which had previously held a viable claim to both?
Of course, creative questions won?t deter Sony, which confirmed last fall that it had director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire on board to make at least two more Spider-Man movies. Although the third film was widely considered a disappointment, it managed the highest international gross of the series?north of $890 million?and for them, that’s the bottom line.
That said, though summer 2011 seemed to be the target for the next movie, there had been little news about actual development. Now series co-star J.K. Simmons, who plays the hyperbolic editor of The Daily Bugle, may have settled some of the doubt. He told MTV at Sundance that he will return and that Raimi wants to shoot the fourth movie next year. There are also rumors the fifth film will shoot concurrently with the fourth, which Simmons didn?t address.
Other questions also remain. Marvel has already staked out the first weekend in May 2011 for The First Avenger: Captain America, which by tradition would belong to Spider-Man. (Marvel also has The Avengers set for July 15, 2011.) Ultimately, with production apparently still more than a year away, it could be some time before this is really cleared up.
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