Roberto Orci On SPIDER-MAN Franchise: “Not Officially Involved In It”

Breakups are always hard, especially when there are children involved. You try to work together to provide your kids with what they need to go forth in the world, but that becomes tougher once other things occupy your time. And for Roberto Orci, it has become almost impossible.

Orci recently made an amicable split with writing and producing partner Alex Kurtzman, but the team was expected to stay together on anything that was already in the works. This was thought to include Sony’s planned Venom (which the pair was going to write and Kurtzman was going to direct) and The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Orci has stated in an interview with IGN when asked directly about the latter that he was not officially involved in it.

A lot of this might have to do with Sony’s uncertain scheduling. Orci said:

I don’t know what their plans are for that franchise. I don’t ever want to say never, but we have to figure out what their scheduling is in terms of when they want each movie. I’ve read probably as much as anyone else. There’s a love for the Sinister Six, the idea of Venom — there’s an idea of Spider-Man’s going to be one of these characters that’s part of our business. He’s such a popular character. Spider-Man’s not going to go away any time soon. When it all happens and how and all that has yet to be determined.

If Orci is going to to direct Star Trek 3, as is rumored, he simply might not be available for the Spidey films. Whether or not this is another nail in the coffin of Sony’s plans to spin off Spidey into a shared universe remains to be seen. The idea seemed haphazardly thrown together from the get go, and the disappointing grosses and reviews for The Amzing Spider-Man 2 caused many wags to question of a line expansion was a good idea. Now they are going to have to go forward without one of the lynchpins of said expansion.

More on this as it develops.