Dane DeHaanMarc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man rebooted the franchise this year to brilliant box office numbers, and terrific responses from audiences getting their favourite neighbourhood hero back on the big screen.

Sony had announced that they were moving forward with the sequel even before the first film hit theatres this summer, and we’ve had terrific news from the project in recent months.

Webb is officially set to return at the helm, alongside leading stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. We heard last month that Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) is circling the role of Mary Jane Watson, and just a few weeks ago, Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) was announced as being in talks to play the villain, Electro, in the coming sequel.

With casting very much now underway for the Summer 2014 blockbuster, the producers are now hunting for the part of Harry Osborn, originally played by James Franco in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, who befriends Garfield’s Peter Parker, but ultimately becomes his worst enemy.

THR are reporting that the role had originally called for a bigger, athletic actor, but is now being reconfigured for a more ‘dark and edgy’ actor, with eyes on the great rising star Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, Lawless), as well as Brady Corbet (Melancholia) and Alden Ehrenreich (the upcoming Beautiful Creatures). They also report that because the character is evolving, there could well be other names in the mix, depending on which direction things take.

I missed DeHaan in Chronicle at the start of the year, but absolutely loved his performance in Lawless this autumn, and was lucky enough to see him in The Place Beyond the Pines, starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, at TIFF, in which he was also brilliant. He is certainly an actor to watch for in the years to come, and taking a role like Harry Osborn would give him a brilliant platform with which to progress, so my personal vote lies with him.

Webb will be directing from a script by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers), and Jeff Pinker (Fringe, Lost), based on an original draft by James Vanderbilt, who penned the first film.

Production is expected to begin early next year, so we’ll hopefully have some more concrete news to bring you soon.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be swinging into theatres in 3D on 2nd May, 2014, and if the first film is anything to go by, it will be one of the biggest films of the year. I can’t wait to see where the story goes next.