Has Sony Bumped 'The Amazing Spider-Man 3' to 2017?

While the most recent crop of superhero movies have either performed up to expectations or well beyond them, one that really missed the mark was Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It may seem a little strange to say that a film currently sitting at $699M worldwide underperformed, but Sony really wanted more out of it, and the fact that critics and audiences largely trashed it didn't help. So perhaps it's not a complete shock to learn that plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 may have been pushed back just a little.

The report comes courtesy of AICN, who state that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been moved to 2017, away from the June 10th 2016 date that had previously been set. At the same time Sony dated The Amazing Spider-Man 4 for May 4th 2018, and there were also Sinister Six and Venom movies in the mix somewhere. Previously we had heard both spinoffs would arrive before 'Spidey 4', but the possibility exists now that Sinister Six, which Drew Goddard is writing and directing, will take over the June 2016 date. That would give Sony and Marc Webb time to do some fine-tuning on a third Spidey movie. And then we could see Venom take over the 2018 date and basically take a fourth Spidey film off the table, because Webb doesn't seem to have any interest beyond his trilogy, anyway.

Sony is in a precarious position right now with their Spider-Man franchise. Generally it's the second film that really hits a stride but that didn't happen with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and now time needs to be spent figuring out where things went wrong. Shuffling the release dates around could be just what's needed to get back on track.