Now that director Marc Webb has officially signed on to helm a sequel to this year's web-spinning reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, it seems that Sony are pressing full-steam ahead with casting on the follow-up. According to Variety, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) will be getting some competition for Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) affections in the form of Mary Jane Watson, with The Descendants star Shailene Woodley said to have entered early negotiations to join the cast of the sequel as the fiery redhead.Meanwhile Sony are also on the lookout for an actor to portray Harry Osborn, Peter's best friend and the son of Spidey's arch-nemesis Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin. However, despite the inclusion of Harry Osborn, it's unclear at this point whether his father will make an appearance in the sequel, with the identity of the main villain yet to be revealed. Variety goes on to speculate that one potential candidate could be that of Maxwell Dillion, an electrical engineer who gains the ability to control electricity after a freak accident, transforming himself into the supervillain Electro.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is based on a story by James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) and has been scripted by the writing team of Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek), along with Jeff Pinkner (Alias, Lost). The film is currently scheduled for release in the UK on April 18th, 2014 and will open in North America on May 2nd, 2014.
