If you remember, back in the day, filmmaker Sam Raimi was all set to make “Spider-Man 4,” then slated for a May 6, 2011 release. Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst would star again, and at least two new characters/actors would join the franchise: Anne Hathaway as the Black Cat/Felicia Hardy, John Malkovich as Vulture/Adrian Toomes. Dylan Baker was also set to reprise his role as Dr. Curt Conners and presumably would finally become the Lizard.
Then, of course, the film fell apart. Feeling the pressure, not totally comfortable with the script, and not feeling like he could resolve those issues in time for his May 2011 release date—having already felt dissatisfied with “Spider-Man 3”— Raimi pulled the plug in January 2010, telling Sony they should go make their alternate “Spider-Man” reboot script instead which became “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
But could there have been more? In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Raimi pointed to another villain in the film.
READ MORE: Sam Raimi Explains Why ‘Spider-Man 4’ Fell Apart
When asked what he missed most about the Spider-Man movie that he never got to make, Raimi said, “I miss the really great cameo we had designed for Bruce Campbell.”
The interview followed up, saying that the rumor was that Campbell would play Mysterio. Instead of really answering, Raimi launched into an answer that seemingly revealed yet another classic Spider-Man villain in the movie.
“That was one of the possibilities,” Raimi said of the Campbell/Mysterio rumor. “We had other things in mind, too, but that was one of them. And I missed Kraven the Hunter. We were going to work that character into the next ‘Spider-Man’; I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought that would be really unique. He’s the ultimate hunter, and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster of the skies. And I wanted to see Peter continue forward as a human being.”
What’s interesting about this is that while he may be talking about “Spider-Man 4,” he also might be talking about “Spider-Man 5.” If you recall—and we don’t blame you if you don’t, it was ages ago—in the summer of 2009, about six months before Raimi bailed on “Spider-Man 4,” screenwriter James Vanderbilt, who wrote “The Amazing Spider-Man,” was tapped to write both “Spider-Man 5” and “Spider-Man 6,” Sony apparently still bullish on the franchise still surviving that far with Maguire. With three villains already in “Spider-Man 4” and Raimi already suggesting that “Spider-Man 3” had too many villains, maybe a fourth would be too much, and he would introduce Hunter and then make him the proper villain of “Spider-Man 5”?
“Spider-Man” 5 & 6, at the time, were called interconnected films, and the suggestion was the two films would shoot back-to-back (the idea of shooting ‘Spider-Man 4 & 5’ back to back and having them interconnected was the original idea, but Raimi shot that idea down).
Vanderbilt was the first writer on “Spider-Man 4,” but Raimi brought on “Rabbit Hole” playwright David Lindsay-Abaire to rewrite him. Eventually, writer/director Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit”) was brought on for another rewrite, but the script never got to a place where Raimi felt it was strong enough to shoot. The director recently revealed that he really wanted to redeem himself after “Spider-Man 3,” a film he didn’t like much, and when he thought he couldn’t do that on “Spider-Man 4,” he decided to walk away instead.
Either way, Raimi is back in the Marvel fold and has directed “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” which comes out May 6, and “Kraven The Hunter,” totally separate from Sony’s spin-off film, is set for release on January 13, 2023. And who knows, Raimi has even said he’d be open to going forward to “Spider-Man 4” with Tobey Maguire now that the multiverse makes that a possibility.
