Director Marc Webb on secret characters and setting up a Spidey world with The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Isn't Marc Webb a great guy? He's shared so many tweets while filming THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 and has had no problem filming in front of loads of people who are snapping possible spoiler photos that end up on sites like this one. Webb isn't like like directors J.J. Abrams or Christopher Nolan who keep secrets and hides things from fans, right?

Sorry to burst your bubble but Marc Webb is a sneaky, lying bastard.

Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit and from what I've heard Marc Webb is an awesome dude. But in a new interview with Total Film the director admits that he hasn't been completely truthful when he was asked if the reason why some actor's characters haven't been revealed yet is because they are familiar to fans:

Hmmm… Well, how do I answer that? [Laughs] How about this? Anything you expect, you'll be surprised. To be totally honest, I intentionally conceal these things because I want people to be engaged and surprised when they see the film and experience it for the first time. It's not like Harry Potter or Twilight necessarily where you know the stories. And we are constructing them from elements of the comics obviously, from the canon, and we pay homage and are very protective of certain elements of the canon, but we want people to experience it for the first time in the theater and I think that’s an experience that it often robbed from the audience, so you’ll forgive me being coy [grins].

"Intentionally concealing" what things Webb? Like denying or not commenting on those rumors about Colm Feore and Felicity Jones' characters in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 perhaps? Marc Webb goes on to say that it can be difficult keeping things a secret when working with such a high profile property like Spider-Man since fan's already know the character's history, and that can lead to plenty of rumors when they see a set image or (as mentioned before) there are people taking pictures while he's filming.

It’s tricky, you have to plan it out beforehand. Like when we shoot outside people are going to take photos and people make speculations so we have to be very protective of where we shoot things, how we shoot things and what the actors are talking about just to preserve a level of excitement and enthusiasm and curiosity about that, about what’s going to happen when you go into that theater.

Marc Webb was also asked how much of the plot for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 and 4 has been already mapped out since Webb and Sony are building a large cinematic universe for Spider-Man with these films:

We’ll see, I’ve got to finish this movie first. But yes there are certainly elements that we have considered and thought about, even from the first film, that are going to play out in time. I think there are a lot of answers that people will be curious about that will be answered in this film. They’ll also be things, that if you pay attention in this film, you’ll get some indication of where this world is going.

Webb was asked in the interview about which character's might potentially be villains (Norman Osborn was brought up), and like some of his previous comments he talked about how the storyline and characters for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 will evolve over time.

Again, one of the fun things about this movie and with the first one was to set up a world over multiple films, and part of that is introducing characters and committing to them before they totally unfold. And that was something we did in the first movie, you didn't even get to meet him you just felt the enigma of him, and in this movie you'll get to meet him for the first time. And when you first meet him, it's a really provocative situation in which you get to engage with Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn.

I'm still not as high on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 as others, however I've become a little bit more optimistic about the film after reading about its panel at Comic-Con. I think some of the elements in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 and the sequels are going to divide a lot fans regardless, but the most important thing will be if the movie is any good and I'm certainly hoping it will be.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti, Chris Cooper, Colm Feore, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Felicity Jones, and B.J. Novak is in theaters May 2nd, 2014.