Miles Morales Will Never Replace Peter Parker in 'Amazing Spider-Man' Franchise

With The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opening in theaters this weekend, many fans are wondering what the future holds for the franchise, especially after it was recently revealed that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 may be the last sequel for star Andrew Garfield and director Marc Webb. Andrew Garfield hinted yesterday that he would like to see the proverbial Spider-Man torch passed to Miles Morales, who, in the comics, was a 13-year-old also bitten by a genetically-mutated spider. Producer Avi Arad has a stern response to that, boldly proclaiming that Spider-Man will always be Peter Parker, no matter what actor is playing him.

"No. The one thing you cannot do, when you have a phenomena that has stood the test of time, you have to be true to the real character inside - who is Peter Parker? What are the biggest effects on his life? Then you can draw in time, and you can consider today's world in many ways. But to have multiple ones...I don't know if you remember, but Marvel tried it. And it was almost the end of Spider-Man."

Avi Arad did hint that the producers who take over the franchise may go in another direction. It still remains to be seen how Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach will approach casting a brand new Peter Parker for The Amazing Spider-Man 4, which has already been confirmed by Sony Pictures, along with the spin-offs Venom and The Sinister Six.

When asked about the spin-offs, producer Matthew Tolmach talked about how they will tie into the flagship franchise.

"They all will fit but will still be movies unto themselves. But the possibility for crossover is absolute. That's the idea - to not just build them modularly. You have to make movies that stand alone as movies. But the clever idea is, What if you could cross the swords? So the uni verses have to tonally link up with each other, for sure."

Avi Arad teased that Venom's Planet of the Symbiote directly ties into the Spider-Man universe.

"Don't forget that Venom has Planet of the Symbiote. There's a lot of meat on this dark bone. And it all comes back to Spider-Man. So everything we are going to do, all the extensions, Spider-Man will always be there, the idea, even if he's off-screen, will be there."

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes to theaters May 2nd, 2014 and stars Martin Sheen, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, Dane DeHaan, Stan Lee, Sarah Gadon, Felicity Jones, Jamie Foxx. The film is directed by Marc Webb.