Three weeks ago, fans of the Spider-Man franchise who were less than enthused by its recent entries breathed a sigh of relief when the news broke that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios had finally worked out a deal that would allow for Peter Parker and his iconic super alter ego to appear in one of the upcoming features from Marvel as well as headline a new film that Marvel and Sony would co-produce. The deal was major enough to impact Marvel’s Phase Three release schedule, with four movies getting their release dates pushed back.

If Kellvin Chavez at Latino Review is to be believed, and that dude is rarely wrong, it looks as if the studios have already found their director for the next Spider-Man movie.

It’s none other than Drew Goddard, whose previously directed The Cabin in the Woods from a script he co-wrote with Joss Whedon, currently the top dog in Marvel Studios’ filmmaker bullpen. He also wrote Cloverfield and Ridley Scott’s upcoming sci-fi drama The Martian and co-wrote World War Z. Goddard’s history with Marvel-related projects is an interesting one. He had previously been developing the villain-heavy Spidey spin-off Sinister Six at Sony and was formerly the showrunner on Marvel Studios’ upcoming Daredevil series for Netflix.

Having Goddard, who will also pen the script for the latest Spidey reboot, at the helm is a good sign that Marvel and Sony have a mutually optimistic vision for the franchise and a plan on how to get there. Goddard is a fantastic director with a respect for the intelligence of his audience and a genuine love of the characters he creates. Cabin in the Woods remains of the most original and exciting horror films of recent years.

According to the rumor, the plan is for the new movie to be called Spectacular Spider-Man, after one of the Marvel Comics titles featuring the legendary wall-crawling superhero, and will reportedly be a three-part series with each installment being released to theaters over during consecutive summers. Avi Arad, who has served as a producer or executive producer on the vast majority of Marvel’s film and television ventures over the years, will not be actively involved in the development of the new movies. Instead, he will receive an honorary executive producer credit and focus his energies on producing the upcoming Ghost in the Shell feature which Scarlett Johansson is set to star in with Rupert Sanders directing. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce alongside Amy Pascal, the former chairperson of Sony’s film division who was one of the driving forces behind the Spider-Man series.

The Latino Review article also suggests that among the things we can expect from the new Spider-Man movies will be a fresh start with a new actor in the role, preferably an unknown, and no further repeats of the origin story. A battle between Spidey and Iron Man will occupy a major section of the first movie and then our fearless web-slinging hero will take a shot at auditioning for a spot on the latest roster of the Avengers. Spider-Man is already rumored to make his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in next year’s Captain America: Civil War before seguing into his next solo adventure, and since Iron Man is supposed to play a hefty role in the events of Civil War what happens between Webhead and Shellhead could be resolved in Spectacular Spider-Man.

Although the Sinister Six movie Goddard had been developing as part of Sony’s original long-term vision for their Spider-Man universe looks to be shelved for the moment the characters could still play a part in the new series. The current plan is to bring them together in the first Spectacular Spider-Man while still keeping the door open for the possibility of future spin-offs. The rumored Aunt May movie and a feature starring some of the female Spider-Man characters will likely be condemned to Development Hell and forgotten. Now let’s rejoice that Spidey’s latest big screen adventure is proceeding forth in an interesting new direction with a great filmmaker calling the shots.

Spectacular Spider-Man, if that is what the title is going to be, is set to open in theaters on July 28, 2017.

[Source: Latino Review]