'Amazing Spider-Man' Franchise In Flux As Roberto Orci Leaves Third Film

This past weekend, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 crossed $200 million in domestic gross. Add in another $500 million across the world, and $700 million seems like a huge success. But fan reactions to the sequel were tepid and it certainly feels like excitement is waining. That's not good for Sony Pictures, who famously recruited an army of talented writers and directors to shepherd the character in an every expanding, connected world. Two more Amazing Spider-Man films were tentatively scheduled, along with Venom and Sinister Six films. It was an ambitious plan that was definitely less certain after the slightly disappointing reactions to part 2.

Now the plans for The Amazing Spider-Man are even more in flux. Roberto Orci, who was scheduled to co-write The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Venom, revealed he's left the franchise and isn't quite sure what's happening moving ahead. Read his quote about the future of The Amazing Spider Man franchise and more below.

IGN spoke to Orci, who said the following about the Amazing Spider Man franchise:

I'm not officially involved in [The Amazing Spider-Man 3]. I don't know what their plans are for that franchise. I don't ever want to say never, but we have to figure out what their scheduling is in terms of when they want each movie. I've read probably as much as anyone else. There's a love for 'The Sinister Six,' the idea of 'Venom' — there's an idea of Spider-Man's going to be one of these characters that's part of our business. He's such a popular character. Spider-Man's not going to go away any time soon. When it all happens and how and all that has yet to be determined. I don't want to say anything about what they should do. I don't want them to think I'm spilling the beans about something.

Now, the most likely reason for Orci to leave Spider-Man is the fact he's doing Star Trek 3 at Paramount, which is a franchise he's even more passionate about. He's writing and directing that film, which doesn't leave a lot of time for other things. That still leaves his former partner Alex Kurtzman and Jeff Pinkner to write Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Kurtzman and Ed Solomon to write Venom though. Two writers each should be more than enough.

The bigger question is, what do those writers do with a franchise audiences seem to be so low on? It would be easy if everyone was buzzing all summer about what's going to happen next with Peter Parker. But after the release of the film, fan speculation and discussion about the future quickly fizzled. What Kurtzman and others will be most singularly tasked with is reinventing an reinvention.

Also of note, Drew Goddard – scheduled to write and direct Sinister Six – left Marvel's Daredevil to work on this franchise. So there is still passion there and things are in the works. Orci's comments kind of make it seem like anything could happen in the future though. It's definitely a situation for fans to keep an eye on.

What do you think about the future of the Amazing Spider-Man franchise?