Spider-Man 4: The Story Behind Sam Raimi’s Canceled Sequel

While Tom Holland swings through the MCU as Spider-Man, interest still remains in Sam Raimi’s unfilmed Spider-Man 4. The film is one of Hollywood’s biggest “what if” moments. Raimi was far along in the development process when Sony unceremoniously canned it and fast-tracked a reboot with Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s always been a bit of an enigma why the film never got made. Even with bad reviews, Spider-Man 3 (2007) brought in $890.8 million worldwide, which was the trilogy’s biggest box office take by $69.1 million. Bad reviews don’t kill franchises, poor box office does. 

So what happened? What was the film about? And why did Sony suddenly scrap Spider-Man 4 in favor of a reboot?

Spider-Man 4 Was Meant To Launch A New Trilogy

By October 2008, the development of Spider-Man 4 was in full swing. At first, Sony planned to film back-to-back sequels like The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. The fourth film would launch a second trilogy, either connected to the events of Spider-Man 3 or it would take the story in a completely fresh direction.

David Koepp, the screenwriter of Spider-Man (2002), expressed his desire to return. However, Sony decided to go with three new screenwriters. James Vanderbilt, who was fresh off his success with Zodiac, wrote the first drafts for Spider-Man 4, while playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) were brought in later for rewrites. In 2009, Sony was optimistic about Spidey’s future and gave Vanderbilt the task of writing treatments for both Spider-Man 5 and 6.

But in March 2009, Raimi nixed the idea of filming back-to-back sequels and focused all creative energies on Spider-Man 4. Later, Raimi said he wanted to focus on crafting a good screenplay for one film and publicly expressed his desire to return to the high point of Spider-Man 2. Expectations were high, and Sony scheduled principal photography to begin in March 2010 with a theatrical release date set for 6 May 2011.

But the film’s plot would depend on the return of the core cast: Tobey Maguire, James Franco, and Kirsten Dunst. A situation that proved to be the film’s first big hurdle.

Who Would Return?

Soon after Raimi signed on to direct, Sony secured Tobey Maguire’s involvement with a hefty $50 million payday. James Franco also wanted to return as Harry Osborn. Even though his character was dead, Raimi wanted to find a way of incorporating Franco in the film. As any comic book fan knows, death is not permanent for comic book characters. However, in this case, Franco would most likely have appeared in flashbacks like Cliff Robertson’s Uncle Ben.

Despite its flaws, Spider-Man 3 laid a solid foundation for Spider-Man 4. Harry Osborne’s death would hang like a shadow over Peter Parker, his relationship with Mary Jane, and potentially his relationship with the villain. But this story would only work if Kirsten Dunst reprised her role as Mary Jane Watson. By 2009, Dunst was still in negotiations with Sony, and her return remained unclear as Raimi began the film’s development.

Raimi told MTV that Mary Jane is “one of my favorite parts,” and he hoped Dunst “would be in it.” But he also remarked that “Spider-Man has existed without…Mary Jane.” It’s unclear just what involvement Mary Jane would have had in the script, or how her role changed from draft to draft. But Dunst dispelled any rumors she did not want to return when she told Variety:

“I wanted to be in that movie so badly. I loved it, and I wish we could have made a fourth.”

A Revolving Door of Villains

While Dunst’s involvement remained uncertain, attention turned to which villain or villains would face off against Spidey. The natural choice was to explore Dr. Curt Connors’s transformation into Lizard. The character was already set up in the previous three Spider-Man films with actor Dylan Baker playing the part. Connors was Peter Parker’s professor and mentor. Baker has a history of playing memorable villains. It seemed inevitable that his character would follow the comics and transform into the hideous and mentally imbalanced Lizard after an experiment goes horribly wrong. It’s a familiar storyline for Spider-Man. Previous mentors Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius all turned into villains after failed experiments, and in the wake of Harry’s death, the filmmakers had an interesting character arc to explore: the idea that everyone close to Parker gets hurt or dies.

Baker expressed his interest in playing Lizard since the promotional tour for Spider-Man 3, and teased his future as the villain when he told IGN in 2007:

“We’re hoping it’s not too far down the line! I’ll be trying to get on the Lizard costume when I’m 80. I just spent time with Alfred Molina [who played Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2], and we were both joking about that. But it’s like these great characters, that are there in the comic books. And it’s like, just open that door up; I’m ready to go!”

Both producer Grant Curtis and director Sam Raimi publicly enthused over bringing Lizard’s story to the screen. “I love Dylan Baker as a person, and I really like the character he is developing. The Lizard is probably one of my favorite characters,” he told MTV in 2007.

Raimi also stated that Electro, Vulture, and the Sinister Six were being considered as villains for Spiderman 4, adding that in the comics Lizard joined the team when they became the Sinister Twelve. The film began to sound overcrowded like Spider-Man 3. But it is important to remember that Sony and Raimi explored the possibility of launching a new trilogy with Spider-Man 4. The Sinister Six, Baker’s transition into Lizard, and then Lizard becoming a card-carrying member of the team could have developed organically over three films.

However, Raimi also added that Spider-Man 4 would “probably have to start with the central journey of the main character to arrive at the proper villain.” As time progressed that villain seemed to be Vulture.

Vulture and Black Cat

Vulture was a personal favorite of Raimi’s in Spider-Man’s pantheon of villains. Originally Raimi wanted him for Spider-Man 3 with Ben Kingsley in the role but it didn’t come to pass. In fact, Raimi felt railroaded by producer Avi Arad who wanted Venom in the film, a villain that Raimi wasn’t excited about. He admitted that the film suffered as a result. “I tried to make it work,” he told Collider. “But I didn’t really believe in all the characters so that couldn’t be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn’t love something, it’s wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it.”

For Spider-Man 4, Raimi was determined to have Vulture. In December 2009, Movieline reported that John Malkovich was shortlisted to play Adrian Toomes, and his alter ego the Vulture. In addition, Spider-Man’s sometime love interest, Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat) would get her big-screen debut. Anne Hathaway reportedly beat out Julia Stiles and Rachel MacAdams for the part. It’s not sure if Hathaway’s Black Cat would replace Kirsten Dunst’s MJ as love interest, or if she’d be part of some love triangle, though concept art by Jeffrey Henderson shows Hardy and Parker kissing. In a further development, Raimi was rumored to change Hardy’s alter ego into Vulturess, an entirely new villainess not present in the Spider-Man comics. But the director later debunked this rumor stating Hathaway would play Black Cat, honoring Spidey’s established mythology.

While Raimi had publicly admitted that Spider-Man 3 had too many villains, his interest in bringing the Sinister Six to the screen meant that one of the other members would show up in the film. Even if it was only as a cameo. Bruce Campbell, who had appeared in funny cameos in each Spider-Man film, was set to return as Mysterio in Spider-Man 4. Mysterio’s involvement was little more than an extended cameo, featuring in the opening sequence when he is handed over to police by Spidey.

But then it all fell apart

Spider-Man 4 had all the ingredients for a decent Spidey film. A script had been written, with writing on the next two installments underway. Both Raimi and Maguire were locked in, Hathaway had signed to play Black Cat, and the idea of Malkovich playing Vulture was surely too good to pass up. So what happened?

In January 2010, Sony issued a press release stating that Spider-Man 4 was dead. They blamed Raimi stating he couldn’t make the 2011 release date, and make a quality film. Curiously, Sony announced within hours that Spider-Man would be rebooted working off a script written by James Vanderbilt, who had written Spider-Man 4 for Raimi. Vanderbilt’s script for Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, did not feature Lizard.

It seems that Vanderbilt wrote a new screenplay for Webb after Raimi admitted to Vulture that he was having a hard time finishing the script for Spider-Man 4:

I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway.’ And [Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, ‘Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio’s money, and I appreciate your candor.’ So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios.’

Raimi wanted to make Spider-Man 4 the best entry in the series. If Sony could have pushed the release date out, Raimi might have delivered. But the clock was ticking for Sony as well. They had to keep making Spider-Man movies every few years otherwise the rights would revert back to Marvel. Whatever Sony’s reason, The Amazing Spider-Man grossed a healthy $757 million worldwide by most film’s standards, but it was still well under Spider-Man 3′s box office take. Who knows if Spider-Man 4 would have bettered Webb’s reboot. But the rebooted series with Andrew Garfield as Spidey never well-received the same kudos as Raimi’s trilogy. When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earned even less at the box office, Sony decided to join forces with Marvel, and Spider-Man became part of the MCU.

Vulture and Mysterio finally got to face Spider-Man on the big screen. Tom Holland’s take on the web-crawler is a hit with the latest, Spider-Man: No Way Home, earning over $1.8 billion worldwide. Tobey Maguire got his Spider-Man 4, of sorts, when he and Andrew Garfield’s web-crawler fought side-by-side with Holland’s Spider-Man after one of Dr. Strange’s spells went wrong and opened up the multiverse.

Sam Raimi is also back in the fold directing the up-and-coming Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Could we see another team-up between Raimi and Maguire’s Spider-Man in the future? Anything is possible now. Regardless, the latest incarnation of Spider-Man and the superhero genre as a whole owes a substantial debt to Raimi’s three Spider-Man films.