10 Movie Franchises That Made The Same Mistake TWICE
6. Too. Many. Villains. - Spider-Man
This is technically a bit of a cheat because we're talking about different iterations of Spider-Man, but there's also no denying that the web-slinger is a pop-culture enterprise in his own right.
Sam Raimi's original trilogy of Spider-Man movies sputtered to an unceremonious climax with the woefully underwhelming Spider-Man 3, which among its other crimes overstocked its rogues gallery with at least one villain too many.
Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church), New Goblin (James Franco), and Venom (Topher Grace) was just too much for one movie, especially as each character had a hefty, emotional backstory to work through, and Venom was included in the film against Raimi's wishes.
Marc Webb's rebooted Spider-Man series came unstuck the exact same way, albeit one movie earlier in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where Spidey had to deal with Electro (Jamie Foxx), Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), and Rhino (Paul Giamatti).
Even with Rhino's role being a mere bookending cameo, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 still felt like it was juggling too many antagonists, and in addition to receiving mixed reviews was enough of a box office disappointment to kill a planned third film.
The MCU's third Spidey movie, No Way Home, also flirted with making this mistake, though benefitted from its faction of multiversal villains already being known to audiences while not getting too bogged down in their individual backstories.