With only a few dissenters to the contrary, it was agreed that Spider-man 3 marred the face of Sony's web-flinging franchise. So the news of Sony and Sam moving forward on three new entries in the saga left a few of us wall-crawler fans a bit uneasy. Sure, we'd all love to see more Spidey action - who wouldn't? But do any of us want to be disappointed at such a level as S3? To add to the disheartening news, the conflict between Sam Raimi and Sony that seemed to exist midway through production on the third movie seems to out in full-force already with Raimi bringing in a new scribe to touch-up the work done by the studio's hatchet man, James Vanderbilt.
But it gets worse.
When a director insists on having a new face come in to rewrite the work done by a 
studio's approved scribe - that's normal; Hollywood is full of that type of conflict. To see the studio then request that that same writer, whose work was just rewritten, come back to write scripts for the 5th and 6th films should give you pause. Is that anything less than a slap in the face - or is it just Sony fulfilling a three-movie deal they made with a writer. Obviously studios are relatively hush-hush on their inner-politics, but if its anything other than just filling out the guy's contract with a clear intention of a rewrite, it seems conflict is on the horizon for all 3 new webhead flicks.
And, oh yeah, it gets even worse:
Expecting to see half of Tobey Maguire's face as he hangs upside-down for a kiss in Spidey 5 and 6? Well, just hold on there - let's not jump to conclusions. It seems Sony is already anticipating the worst possible scenario for audience reception of S4, and they seem to be mulling over a reboot for 5 and 6. That's right, to follow on the heels of a Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst cast film, Sony is willing to throw it all away for a new cast and director. Now, superhero movies, more than any other type of franchise, almost seem to be made for reboots. After all, how many different Spider-man series have their been in the last 20 years? I can name about 6 off the top of my head - and that makes me a comic book store noob in comparison to the true-red-blue Spidey fans. So while rebooting isn't exactly a disaster for a series like this, it certainly makes the fourth movie seem like an utter waste of everybody's time.
Hey guess what? It gets somewhat badder:
Now for another fun portent of doom: villain selection. There remain quite a few good villain choices for ensuing Spidey flicks - but if Raimi's handling of Venom (whom he 
disliked as a character) is any indication, it's not just the studio and/or writer that makes the issue somewhat harrowing. When you have the Lizard, Shocker, the Scorpion, Mysterio, Craven and loads of other fun Spidey villains to choose from it's disheartening to know that it's less about which villain will provide the better narrative for a film and more about how the film's creators feel. Couple that with the fact that Spidey's mastermind villain, the Kingpin, has been knocked out of contention after he was used in Fox's Daredevil (meaning Fox owns the rights to the character, and you can bet your ass they won't let Sony have him).
So with Venom dead (unless they pull a Spidey 3 on us), Kingpin dethroned and the feelings of Raimi casting such a huge pall over the Spidey villain selection - what's 
there to look forward to?
Kirsten Dunst screaming? Tobey Maguire smiling shyly? J.K. Simmons fast-talking his way to cheating Peter out of a decent paycheck in exchange for a nice basket of meat (okay, that we want to see more of)?
With Spidey's Deadpool-like mouth reduced to nothing more than "Whoa"s and little minor quips, Spidey's future feels a little neutered.
