'The Amazing Spider Man' franchise has boasted of a lot of villains. They had their own viral site, and more characters are being introduced. Before critics fry the franchise because of villain overkill, the producers have a valid appeal.

We must be aware that as opposed to Marvel and Fox (even Warner with DC) who both have superhero groups in their stable, Sony only has Spider Man to build their 'universe' upon. While the three other studios are still cherry-picking which franchise to adapt, Sony has only Spider Man as the only hero.

This has forced Sony to take the road less traveled, and have villains to headline their spin-off films. This is a bold move, and director Marc Webb related to SFX: "We should all be talking so that these movies feel as though they're of a piece, so the fans feel like there's symmetry. It's a crazy luxury to have all these smart writers sitting around in a room brainstorming. Our jobs remain the same in terms of having to produce and direct the movies but it's like putting together an all-star team - why not have the best players there all the time? So that was kind of a breakthrough idea that we're just now really tapping into."

Producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad talked to SFX about the challenge. Tolmach says: "It's a challenge in every sense. Obviously questions of traditional hero/villain dynamics have to be looked at. At the same time it's an awesome challenge, because some of the greatest characters are in fact villains, and how you construct that is so much fun. People love those bad characters if they're good bad characters, and love to watch them. And nobody's all good, nobody's all bad, and so where we end up with that story, I think, is a really awesome challenge, and we all smile when we think about what you can do. It's definitely a bad-ass group of people and I think it's going to be a ton of fun to watch them."

While the Sinister Six are known as a villain group (the name is a bit of a giveaway), it is entirely possible for the characters to connect and even gain the sympathy of the audience.

Avi Arad elaborates this point: "With Marvel characters, the villains are 'victims of circumstance.' If you look at our villains, none of them were born like that. Our villains are nice and complex and in the world of film writing you can play with that, you can make some wonderful things out of it. The Spider-Man universe has amazing villains, they are all character driven."

In an extreme sense, the villains could actually switch sides against one common enemy. This is not entirely out of the question, and with their creative team, they can make a credible presentation.

For now, Peter Parker takes on Electro, The Rhino and Green Goblin. And he still needs more excuses to tell Aunt May.

"The Amazing Spider Man 2" will be released on May 2, 2014.