The Amazing Spider-Man 3: What Really Happened?

In the aftermath of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony, rather wisely, decided to rethink its plans for the entire franchise.

In July 2014, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was delayed by two years (moving from 2016 into 2018), with Goddard's still-in-development Sinister Six stepping in to fill the void, with an 11 November 2016 date.

By giving these movies release windows and not removing them from the schedule entirely, it seemed like Sony still had some faith in the direction of the franchise - but that faith appeared to wane rather quickly over the coming months.

Around the same time as those release date shifts, Orci told IGN that he was "not officially involved" in writing The Amazing Spider-Man 3, a clear sign that the project was in trouble. Then, in August 2014, Deadline reported that Sony was doing a "top-to-bottom revamp" of the Spidey franchise, with behind-the-scenes executive shake-ups also taking place - which, apparently, was a "last-ditch effort of management to save themselves and turn the studio around."

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was certainly a misfire, and we can certainly level a huge chunk of the blame at the studio's feet. But, to be completely fair to everyone involved, absolutely nobody could've predicted what would happen next.

In November 2014, Sony Pictures was hacked, resulting in an enormous amount of confidential information being made public.

Alongside details about the Bond film Spectre - including story spoilers and budget concerns - the most interesting tidbits for movie fans revolved around the Spidey franchise. Emails between executives (including former Sony Pictures co-chairperson Amy Pascal, pictured above) revealed that there was talk of actually replacing Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, and that Sony was even considering throwing in the towel and rebooting the series all over again.

While this wasn't outright confirmation that Spidey's big-screen future had been decided, the overall negative tone of these internal communications did seem to indicate that the Amazing Spider-Man franchise had run its course.

And sure enough, the final nail in the coffin arrived just a few months later...