Marc Webb Gives Some Vague 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' Sound Bites, Interested In What Villains "Bring Out In Peter"

Big Spider-Man news hit this week when Jamie Foxx was announced as the cast choice to play the main villain Electro in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The casting of Foxx might be a great choice; he's a versatile, intense, and nuanced actor. The choice of Electro is a bit more difficult to applaud — he seems like a character with big powers but not much going on to turn him into a convincing screen villain.

Fortunately, Marc Webb was doing some promo rounds for the Amazing Spider-Man blu-ray release (amazing how that timing worked out) and was asked about the character. Did he offer any big info about his choice? Well...

Coming Soon talked to Webb, who explained,

What makes villains interesting to me is what they bring out in Peter. What challenges they provide for him. What's great about Marvel and other comics is that often there's a pre-existing relationship... It's not just about the physical conflict he has, but the emotional ones as well.

Oh, wait, did I suggest that Webb was going to talk about Electro? Actually, he was pretty evasive on that point. "I like Electro," he told the site. "I'm fascinated by Norman Osborn and the different inflections of him. And Harry. Mary Jane and Gwen are always interesting to me." Guess that helps pin down the fact that Norman Osborn was the guy in the post-credits scene of Webb's first Spidey film. But what does that mean for the sequel? Not much that we can define right now.

What's exciting about moving forward is that, in the first movie, I had to still honor some of the important elements of the origin story. But I also wanted to redefine the context of it because I'm building a different universe than what we've seen before. A lot of the nuance is quite different. Now, as we're approaching the sequel, it's really exciting because I feel quite liberated. I have a universe that's my own. I don't have an obligation to the origin story. It's pretty fun and exciting and I can dig deeper into the parents.

Here's one good bit, however: Webb says that there's a good chance that some scenes will be shot in the sequel explicitly for IMAX. Which will be interesting if they're still shooting 3D, which means digital, which means they won't be on native IMAX film. Still, that's another aspect of the sequel to be on the lookout for.

As a bonus, here are all the deleted scenes from the The Amazing Spider-Man. Under the embed is a full breakdown of the inclusions, via CBM. Previously-released deleted scenes are marked as such in the list.

  • :01 – Alternate version of Uncle Ben's death.
  • 4:00 – Dr. Connors is waiting at Peter's home, tries to comfort the grieving lad after the loss of Uncle Ben.
  • 5:50 – OLD: Peter Parker follows Dr. Connors to his secret lab.
  • 6:50 – OLD: Dr. Ratha watches a video of Dr. Connors talking about the new formula's early success.
  • 7:24 – Fatherly advice from Dr. Connors to his son is not quite the same when you have reptilian blood coursing through your veins.
  • 10:30 – OLD: Lizard's grand entrance inside of a high school girl's bathroom.
  • 11:20 – After the intense high school battle, a naked Dr. Connors pleads for help from Peter.
  • 12:10 – OLD: Dr. Ratha, Spider-Man/Peter and Dr. Connors/Lizard all at the Doc's underground lab.
  • 15:35 – Peter Parker gets Aunt May those damn eggs that she is always chirping about.
  • 16:10 – OLD: Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy making out.