Spider-Man 4 hasn't even started shooting yet, but Sony has already hired a screenwriter for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6, lining up a second trilogy for the webslinger after a two year (and counting) hiatus.
Vanderbilt wrote the first draft of the Spider-Man 4 screenplay, but Raimi didn't go for all of his ideas, leading first to a rewrite by David Lindsay-Abaire and then another by Gary Ross. But there's a big question over whether Raimi would return for a fourth film - or key cast like Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. After all, Raimi's got World of Warcraft to think about, and the two leads signed special one-film deals for this fourth one, after the end of their previous three-film deals.
The fifth and sixth films are due to be interconnected, which should come as no surprise. The word is that Sony is anxious to reduce the gap between films, which has spread from two years between the first two instalments to four years between Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man 4's 2011 release date, and that's why Vanderbilt is being hired so early in the game.
The word "reboot" is also being bandied about, although that may simply refer to the possibility of a cast and director change rather than a total change of direction. In any case, start the speculation here: what baddies do you think could sustain two films? What challenges should Peter Parker face? And who could step in to Raimi and/or Maguire's shoes / lycra suit?