The Amazing Spider-Man: Looking Ahead....

A photo of producer Avi Arad on the set of  helmer Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" shows a soundstage branded with the "Sinister 6" on it. The pic has fueled speculation and rumors that The Sinister Six--a group of bad guys from Spider-Man's rogues gallery will show up in future installments of the film series. The group first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 from 1964.

Given how they are introducing more than one bad guy in Spidey 2 I have no doubt that the Sinister 6 will show up at some point in the film narrative

In the meantime, several new official stills from the sequel have been released.

Andrew Garfield will return as Peter Parker and Emma Stone is gonna reprise her role as Gwen Stacy. Do these recent set pics confirm that the classic story The Night Gwen Stacy Died is part of the film? For the record Stone endorsed the idea last August when The Amazing Spider-Man was still in theaters...

Dane DeHaan ("Chronicle") has won the role of Harry Osborn Osborn of course is Peter Parker's best friend and eventual enemy who was played by James Franco previously. Jamie Foxx will be playing bad guy Electro. Paul Giamatti plays the villain, the Rhino Chris Cooper has been cast as Norman Osborn--who eventually becomes Spidey's number one foe--The Green Goblin--The character was played previously by Willem Dafoe Felicity Jones (Like Crazy), plays Norman's girlfriend in the film. Former Office star B.J. Novak has an unspecified role in the film. While there was speculation that actress Sarah Gadon ("Cosmopolis," "A Dangerous Method") was going to be the new Mary Jane Watson, given the fact that Shailene Woodley's performance as the character had been cut.  As it turns out though Gadon DOES appear in "Amazing 2" after all as an entirely different character. She is  actually playing an android cop.

Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner wrote the script based on a previous draft by James Vanderbilt.

Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce.

The new film is now in post-production to meet its May 2nd 2014 release date.

Both The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 already have release dates

Webb recently told Crave Online that the fourth film in the rebooted franchise will likely go beyond Spidey's own story:

"I think [for] the fourth movie, what we've discovered is there are so many ancillary characters, that have enormous, cinematic potential that there may be other ways to exploit those characters, in a way that is exciting and fun and worthwhile. It might not just be a Spider-Man movie."