We live in a movie world of superheroes at the moment with franchise after franchise adding more and more sequels to their collections and production companies exploiting as many comic book successes as possible. However, while Thor protects Asgard with his big hammer, Superman tries to anonymously save the world with only a pair of specs as identity protection and Spider-Man deals with his abandonment issues, there are much more sinister fights afoot in production background.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2The Amazing Spider-Man 2 

The biggest battle is for release dates and the most recent clamber for the best one began when Sony announced its decision to ‘undate’ The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 which were scheduled to come out on June 10 2016 and May 4 2018 respectively.

The studio has said that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will be postponed to 2018, with no new date confirmed.

The rescheduling of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 leads to questions about the plausibility of continuing to develop this latest franchise in the Spider-Man series, after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fell foul to criticism of a plot too heavy and a narrative with too many characters and villains.

More: On the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron

More: What's happening with Iron Man 4?

However, it appears other superheroes are not suffering with any form of identity crisis and Marvel Studios and Disney swooped in quickly to lay claim to the weekend of May 2018; with a title as yet unknown.

Of course, this lack of a film confirmation has given rise to much speculation with the possibility of Avengers 3 looming large.

The Avengers
The Avengers

Avengers: Age of Ultron will open on the first May weekend in 2015, three years to the exact date after The Avengers burst on to our screen in 2012.

Sony will not be resting on their laurels in 2016 and is planning to release Spider-Man spin-off, The Sinister Six, that year; a film which centres on an alliance of mankind’s greatest enemies determined to destroy New York and Spider-Man.

Next page: Will Captain America 3 go up against Batman v Superman 3?