During the press tour for “The Taking Of Pelham 1, 2, 3,” producer Todd Black opened up to the NY Post, who brought us that hellacious David Carradine headline, about the next installment in the Wall-Crawler’s saga. While it’s been up in the air in the form of cryptic interview answers from all parties involved, Black confirmed that Kirsten Dunst WILL return for “Spider-Man 4.” There had been some speculation regarding her role in the next film considering she hasn’t been too high on the lack of development regarding her character. Black confirms that there is also no wedding subplot involving Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker, which means either MJ’s role is significantly beefed up, or the price was right.
Deflating previous enthusiasm shown by fans regarding cagey Sam Raimi comments, he also confirms the series won’t be going the supernatural way and adding vampire antihero Morbius to the mix. “We’re just coming up with who the villain’s going to be now,” he says, “We’ll be shooting in New York again. Trust me, people will appreciate who we pick, because it’ll be a big part of New York.” Black also confirms that it will be a villain from the comics, but there aren’t really any villains with strong New York ties. The NY Post writer suggests a couple of popular contenders, but he’s not as wise to the comics as we are…
Kraven: No NY ties to speak of. However, he would fit the movie’s theme of an animal hunt, as the movie’s probably going to go with multiple villains again, possibly with an animal theme. Kraven’s a big game hunter who won’t be satisfied until he’s bagged Spider-Man, so he comes to the city to wreak havoc. A mix of Crocodile Dundee and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Russian strongman was believed to be a contender to feature in the film when it was rumored that Mickey Rourke was offered a role in the film, with Sergei Kravinoff being the most Rourke-like of all potential villains. Bringing in Kraven would also open the door for Kraven’s vengeful brother, the crime boss Chameleon- yes, the name is quite literal.
Kingpin: The Kingpin is a mafia crime figure who controls the NY underworld. He’s clashed with Spidey many times before in the comics, but Fox opted to include him in “Daredevil,” which would mean the studio would have to loan him out a la Michael Keaton in “Out of Sight.” While this seems like a possibility, why would the biggest franchise in Sony’s stable resort to “Daredevil”‘s sloppy seconds?
The Lizard: The most likely candidate. Dylan Baker has been playing Dr. Curt Connors, who featured in the last two films and was name-dropped in the first. Such a decent actor shouldn’t be sidelined for so long, so it’s likely Connors will live out his comic transformation into the Lizard, the result of an experiment designed to grow his arm back. Connors is a professor at Spidey’s Empire State University (technically Columbia), so there are NY roots in that, we suppose.
Carnage: An offshoot of Venom, Carnage is the result of Venom’s remaining symbiote finding a new, far more depraced host in deranged serial killer Cletus Kasady. Despite fans disliking the third film, they still seem to enjoy Venom, who may be getting his own spinoff film, and there’s precedence to Carnage’s entrance into the series, as Dr. Connors probably retained the portion of the symbiote given to him by Peter Parker to study.
J. Jonah Jameson, Scorpion, Man-Wolf: Definitely NY-based, and with Raimi constantly tying the villains’ origin in with Peter Parker in one way or another, it might be best to keep that trend and pick someone who’s already been established in the series. Played by JK Simmons so far in the series, Jameson is a far more malicious entity in the comics, having once paid to recruit supervillain the Scorpion into the fold. In the current comic run, Jameson has just completed a run for mayor of NYC- can’t get more New York City that that. He would have had the excuse in the second film to at least pursue Peter Parker, the man who stole Mary Jane from Jameson’s astronaut son, but that plotline disappeared from the comics. John Jameson (Daniel Gillies) could also return, possibly undergoing his comics transformation into the Man-Wolf.
Electro: A lifetime NYer, Electro is one of the ground-level personalities who became supervillains through a freak accident. Keeping in mind Raimi’s interest with Peter Parker’s inability to pay the bills, he could conceivably come across electric company employee Maxwell Dillion at some point and accidentally cause his transformation into the electricity-powered villain. Electro’s always been a source of comedy in the comics until given a modern day revision that made the character realize he was gay. Gay electric company worker? Raimi has admitted in the past he was a fan of Electro, and he seems dead-set on using the very early Spidey villains- they don’t appear much earlier than Electro, a 1964 creation.
Mysterio: A fan favorite, Mysterio is a failed actor-turned-special-effects artist who used his talents to embark on a series of crimes across New York City. The only tie to NY would be in the theory that Mysterio has appeared in every Spider-Man movie. Fans speculate that, being such a throwaway character, Mysterio would be revealed to be the comic relief character played by Bruce Campbell in each film. While Campbell has played a wrestling announcer, a theater attendant, and a maitre’d, the argument suggests that they are all sidejobs a NY-based actor would have.
The Vulture: An early addition for the third film when it was to be two movies back to back, it was reported that Raimi was interested in Sir Ben Kingsley for the role. The elderly Adrian Toombes, a criminal with a feathery flying apparatus, is known to hail from Staten Island, and could be a romantic foil for Aunt May.
Hobgoblin: Not another Goblin, right? The many Hobgoblins of the comics embraced crime after finding the leftover Green Goblin material from the Osbornes, but none were very interesting or had NY ties. The Ned Leeds’ version of Hobgoblin did have a relationship with Daily Bugle receptionist Betty Brant, so maybe Elizabeth Banks could be given something to do this time.
Rudy Giuliani- How about a President Giuliani declaring New York a crime cesspool after the formation of the Sinister Six and walling the city off, aligning himself with Sarah Palin and the Republican Party to stomp out the extraordinariness of Spider-Man, who surely doesn’t represent the reality of Joe Sixpack? The Wall-Crawler must fight a sea of superpowered enemies while battling covert “traditionalist” values and pro-life terrorist groups. Also, Sarah Palin becomes the Black Cat.