After months of rumours, Sony has finally confirmed that its Spider-Man universe will be extended by standalone films for both Venom and the Sinister Six.
The studio has assembled a kind of Spider-Man brain trust to bring this vision to reality, with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon and Drew Goddard all set to work on the new films.
As well as writing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (which Sony hopes Marc Webb will return to direct) for 2016, Kurtzman and Orci will team up with Solomon to write the screenplay for Venom , which Kurtzman will also direct.
Goddard will then pick up the strands of the various villains introduced by the main series and will write a script for The Sinister Six , which he is also slated to direct.
“The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio’s greatest assets,” said Columbia President Doug Belgrad. “We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world.”
Hugely exciting news then, with the wealth of viral teaser and hints that have been released over the past few weeks clearly having been leading to this announcement.
It will also throw a whole new light on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when it arrives next year, which will no doubt contain a number of pointers as to how the franchise will eventually expand. Lots to watch out for when that film opens in the UK on 18 April 2014.
