You’d be forgiven for forgetting that a movie called The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually came out this year. In fact, it opened in theaters just over a month ago. Though Sony’s villain-packed sequel wasn’t a total bomb at the box office, its worldwide total of $699.1 million is nearly $60 million short of the first film, and it marks a series low for the franchise; for the first time in history an X-Men movie is poised to surpass Spider-Man. This isn’t a Wild Wild West-style disaster, but given that Sony was touting a massive interconnected Spider-Man franchise with two more sequels already dated and spinoffs for The Sinister Six and Venom in active development, one has to wonder if the studio may be rethinking its strategy post-The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

According to a new report, that may be exactly what they’re doing, as word comes that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 might be delayed to an unspecified date in 2017. More after the jump.

At the bottom of a report on the recent DC/Warner Bros. news, AICN’s Jeremy Smith dropped the following nugget:

I have been told that THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 has been moved to an undetermined date in 2017.

Marc Webb, who directed the first two films, was confirmed to return as the director of Spidey 3 earlier this year, and Sony has a June 10, 2016 release date staked out for the film (and May 4, 2018 for The Amazing Spider-Man 4). With the script already written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, all signs were pointing towards production of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 kicking off late this year or early next year, but we’ve heard absolutely zilch since Spider-Man 2 opened to brutal reviews and disappointing box office. As such, it’s not hard to believe that Sony might want to take a breath and rethink its strategy, therefore pushing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 to 2017.

The studio previously stated its intention to release a new Spider-Man film every year starting in 2016, and I wonder if they might try to rush The Sinister Six or Venom into production first and give one of those movies the 2016 slot. Sinister Six writer/director Drew Goddard recently left Marvel’s Daredevil Netflix show citing scheduling issues, and Alex Kurtzman has been attached to direct Venom for some time.

Again, though, Sony is almost certainly reconsidering its approach, and the villains were the most widely lambasted aspect of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Putting out a villain-only Spider-Man movie might not be the best way to reinvigorate the franchise. Andrew Garfield is the MVP of the series and Webb excels at the character driven stuff, so my suggestion for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would be to slash the budget, limit the movie to one villain, and focus on a smaller-scale, more personal story for Peter Parker. Perhaps the demise of Gwen Stacy could provide some inspiration?

Of course none of this is confirmed so it’s still possible that we could see The Amazing Spider-Man 3 move forward as planned, but I can’t imagine Sony isn’t making at least some changes before they release the next Spider-Man movie—whatever that may be.