The Amazing Spider-Man 3 Writer Reveals What Happened to Andrew Garfield Sequel

It’s no secret that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to live up to the critical and commercial expectations set by its predecessor, which largely contributed to why a sequel never materialized. The film picks up after the events of its predecessor, following Peter Parker and his struggles with a complicated romance with Gwen Stacy, the return of his old friend Harry Osborn, revelations about his parents, and the emergence of a new villain, Electro. Despite these setups, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 never came to fruition. Sony made an ambitious announcement ahead of the premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, confirming a third and fourth film. So what happened?

Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote the second film, was asked about the project recently, and if there was potential for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 to see hte light of day now. When asked about the potential future for the sequel by ScreenRant, Kurtzman replied, “You know, we never wrote it. We never wrote it. I did 2 and that was it for me.”

As you can tell, the plot of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a lot of subplots and new characters crammed into its 142-minute runtime, resulting in an unfocused mess that tried to do too much all at once. Despite being a box office hit, the critical reception was quite negative and is not exactly remembered fondly by fans. This was made all the more disappointing due to its predecessor’s warmer reception from fans and critics, who largely took to Andrew Garfield’s turn as the webslinger and Emma Stone as his love interest.

Kurtzman isn’t the only one associated with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 who has commented on its failure, as Garfield himself has talked about his frustration with how the film turned out, previously noting, “And I wanted to…not to say that I needed to rescue those films, but I couldn’t make them as deep and soulful and…life-giving as I could ever dream. And I’m never gonna be able to do that, with any film. It was especially difficult in that situation because…well, just because.”

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Sony was obviously trying to imitate Marvel Studios and their sprawling shared cinematic universe, hence the introduction of multiple characters, storylines, and Easter Eggs hinting at potential sequels and spinoffs. In addition to third and fourth installments in the Amazing Spider-Man series, there were tentative plans to make films involving the Sinister Six, Venom, Carnage, Spider-Man 2099, and returning characters like Stone’s Gwen Stacy and Chris Cooper’s Norman Osborn.

Since the sophomore failed to meet the studio’s expectations, they went back to the drawing board and shared the character with Marvel Studios to much success. Meanwhile, Sony forged on with their own Spider-Man-less shared cinematic universe revolving around supporting characters and villains from the Spider-Man comics. However, because those films were exactly embraced by audiences either, Sony has gone back to the drawing board again.

Luckily for Garfield, his stint as Spider-Man was given a proper coda when he returned to the character in 2021’s crowd-pleasing Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film saw Tobey Maguire also revive his version of Spider-Man to team up with the MCU’s version of the character, played by Tom Holland for a massive multiversal adventure. While nothing has been officially announced, Garfield’s inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has sparked fans’ interest in seeing him come back in future installments, either in another MCU film or in his original Amazing Spider-Man franchise. There’s even speculation that he’ll appear in a future Avengers film, though these rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt.