Following from comments from Andrew Garfield regarding the future of ‘Peter Parker’ in ‘The Amazing Spider-man’ franchise for Sony, who suggested that perhaps a reboot of a different nature might take place with a new, Peter Parker-less Spider-man; producer Avi Arad tells The Playlist that anyone else besides Peter Parker may kill the franchise:

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.

Arad is referring to the Ben Reilly Spider-Man clone saga, Miles Morales of the Ultimate Spider-Man line, and Spider-Man 2099 storylines, all of which featured a Peter Parker-less Spider-Man. These story lines have historically been considered less than stellar takes on the Spider-Man mythos, and generally are regarded as story lines only the comic book faithful would understand and (perhaps?) appreciate. For the mass market appeal that is Spider-Man, it makes sense for Sony to stick with the tried and true version that has the most mass appeal.

But what does this mean for the already announced Amazing Spider-Man 4? We know that the Venom and Sinister Six movies will hit before Spider-Man 4, so will we see a new Peter Parker don the blue and red tights by the time a fourth film rolls around? If so, one can only hope that it’s not a reboot akin Webb and Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man.