Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb has been paying attention to internet buzz, because he’s clearly working us up into a frenzy on purpose. The sequel’s production has only just got underway, and Webb is already tweeting daily pictures from the set. This particular one might be something special, even though it’s just a locker with the number “14” on it.
Day 3. #happybirthday twitter.com/MarcW/status/2…
— Marc Webb (@MarcW) February 7, 2013
Here’s a bigger look…
That’s the same number as the locker in which Peter Parker and Eddie Brock found the Venom suit in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books, in which the suit was an invention by their respective parents, intended to cure cancer. Eventually, the symbiote bonded to Brock, and if you know anything about Spider-Man whatsoever, you probably at least get the gist of what happened next. This, dear readers, is the locker in which Venom was born.
That is not, however, the significance of the hashtag “#happybirthday.” February 6 is the birthday of Amazing Spider-Man 2 co-star Dane DeHaan, who plays Harry Osborn in the sequel. Translation: “Happy Birthday, Dane DeHaan… Here’s your Venom suit.”
If we’re right (again, if Marc Webb isn’t just screwing with us), then Dane DeHaan would be the new Venom. And that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? The son of the Green Goblin, friends with Peter Parker, who will eventually turn on the hero. With his roots in OsCorp and his best friend Spider-Man destined to turn against Harry’s father, Dane DeHaan seems like the perfect candidate for the Venom suit in the new franchise, and then get his own solo movie, courtesy of DeHaan’s old Chronicle director, Josh Trank.
That said, it could all be a big tease, specifically designed to mislead us in the wrong direction so the actual events of Amazing Spider-Man 2 will remain a surprise. But it’s a pretty big tease isn’t it? And it makes so much sense. Wouldn’t Spider-Man 3 have been a lot simpler if the Venom suit had just gone to Harry Osborn, who already hated Spider-Man in the first place, and Topher Grace had been cut out the film altogether?
We’ll find out for sure when Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters on May 2, 2014.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel, the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and the co-star of The Trailer Hitch. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
