I liked The Amazing Spider-Man. Granted, it doesn’t hold a candle to the first two films in Raimi’s trilogy. And a film where the general consensus appeared to be “Hey, that wasn’t as bad as I thought,” doesn’t inspire much anticipation for continued adventures. I’m almost loath to revisit the film because, as I admitted in my review, the 3D really is the best part. The experience will surely lose something in a home viewing.

Despite tepid reviews, those inflated ticket prices helped bring Amazing to $751,657,162 gross (box office mojo) – so a sequel was assured. What wasn’t a surety until today was the return of director Marc Webb – rumored to have had a falling out with Sony over the director’s obligations to Fox. Well, as Drew McWeeny over at Hitfix now reports, cooler heads have prevailed as both star Andrew Garfield and Webb are now signed and delivered for the sequel. Emma Stone is also reportedly in talks to return as Gwen Stacy, though it would seem her deal is still in the works.

The sequel sees itself on a fast-approaching (in movie time) May 2nd, 2014 deadline. It doesn’t sound like Webb had the best time battling the studio over creative decisions on the previous film. With a high-budget project on such strict time constraints, can the filmmaker really be expecting things to run smoother the second time out?