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When 2007’s Spider-Man 3 limped past its predecessors to surprisingly become the most successful instalment of the Sony produced franchise, the general consensus, backed up by a poor performance at the US box office, was that it just wasn’t as good as the first two films.

From that moment on the future of the wall crawler looked precarious at best. I can’t have been the only one who was a little shocked when Sony announced that both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire were on board for a fourth outing. Internet buzz seemed to suggest that both were a little disappointed by the third film and were hoping to put right a few wrongs before clocking out.

Jump forward to 2009 and rumours of pre-production ructions were rife. The source of these ructions seemed to emanate from the relationship between Sony and Raimi. It was widely reported that Raimi and Sony had once again come to blows over the film’s potential nemesis, an issue that had hindered the third film as well. To the uninformed spectator it seemed that whilst Raimi was determined to introduced winged engineer Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture, Sony were under the impression that the bald inventor lacked sex appeal and scope for mind blowing effects. Sony’s apparent unwillingness to bow to Raimi’s creative control finally proved to be the straw that broke the spider’s back and both Raimi and Maguire reluctantly walked off the project.

With Sony still owning the rights to the Spiderman brand there’s no chance of Spidey being filtered into the Marvel-verse which is currently being constructed in preparation for the 2012 Avengers epic. As a result, Sony and Marvel have found themselves with a still profitable franchise missing one director and one star. Inevitably I suppose, in light of the recent successes of both the Bond and Batman franchises a reboot was surely on the cards and Sony wasted no time in trawling the oceans for the newest bright young thing on the block.

To my personal, pleasant surprise (500) Days of Summer director, the aptly named Marc Webb was given the precarious honour of re-launching the franchise completely from scratch.

Whilst Webb is arguably a surprising choice given his relative lack of experience he will be backed up by what will no doubt be a corker of a script. The script abandoned by Raimi was penned by none other than Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt (not Vanderbeek). So, providing Sony don’t tinker too much we should be able to count on a darker outing this time around although returning producers Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad will no doubt ensure that the new film doesn’t alienate it’s established fan base too much.

The big news everyone is now waiting on is who will don the skin tight suit? As the rumour mill turned names like Efron and Pattinson were banded about and subsequently shot down (insert sigh of relief here). Another name that sprang forth was Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Webb’s (500) days leading man but with Vanderbilt’s script rumoured to return to a high school setting JGL is clearly already too old for the part. So for now, Tobey Maguire’s name remains on the film’s IMDB page but I think that’s just because no one has bothered to delete it. The strongest rumour at the minute is that an unknown will be cast, Brandon Routh’s Superman proving that it’s possible to breathe new life into an already hugely iconic character.

What remains up in the air is which villain will be selected and who will play them. Despite the ‘reboot’ I would imagine the likes of Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Sandman are all of the table (at least for now). Similarly if rumours are to be believed Vulture is a definite no no. However, this doesn’t mean that Webb will be short on options after all there’s still the likes of Rhino, Kraven, Mysterio, Carnage, Electro and The Lizard to name but a few. Also don’t rule out the fact that Sony’s effects department may be desperate to have another bash at Venom.

Even though most Spidey fans will no doubt approach any forth coming news with caution it is important to remember that Marvel successfully orchestrated a comic based reboot of its own with 1998’s Spider-Man: Chapter One (albeit 30 years after the original run began).
Whilst personally I am still disappointed at the departure of both Raimi and Maguire I will no doubt be allowing a degree of cautious excitement to grow in the pit of my stomach as the powers that be drip feed us information between now and the new release date of 2012. One thing this postponed release does mean is that both studios now have time to decide whether or not this reboot will form part of the ever expanding 3D movie slate. For the record I’m betting yes it will.