Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi discussed the reasons for why his fourth Spider-Man film never saw the light of day. The highly-divisive Spider-Man 3 was released during the early era of superhero cinema.
Spider-Man is a popular web-slinging hero who many comic fans and casual viewers have come to love. Once a fictional hero, Spider-Man is now an icon for many. Both old and young appreciate the stories that come from the fictional version of NYC. The original Spider-Man trilogy was fans' first time seeing the wall-crawler be brought to life, and still to this day many wish that the series ended on its own terms.
While promoting Doctor Strange 2, Raimi was talking to MoviePilot and shared some his thoughts on why Spider-Man 4 never happened. "We had a script years ago and we were actively working in pre-production...It became a thing where there was a deadline and I didn't want to make something that was less than great," he said. The director went on to address the studio intervention that plagued Spider-Man 3, and how he didn't want to repeat that experience. "I thought I had compromised a bit on Spider-Man 3 and I wanted to really pay the audience back on Spider-Man 4 and make the best Spider-Man of all... And I couldn't get the script together in that amount of time. So I told Sony, 'I think it's best if you go ahead with your planned alternate Spider-Man storyline, because I don't want to let the audience down.'"
The compromise Raimi referred to was reportedly being forced to use Venom by producer Avi Arad. This unfortunately wasn't the best outcome for the series. Of course, now that the multiverse is canon in the Marvel films, many want to know if Raimi will return to the idea of a fourth Spider-Man film. The director admitted, "I didn’t think it was possible but after jumping back in with the Multiverse, I realized that anything is possible now so I’m completely open to it." This is great news for those who've been awaiting a proper conclusion or continuation of this fan favorite story.
Andrew Garfield ended up being the Spider-Man who stole the show in No Way Home. Many soon came to the realization that the actor was talented but the scripts that were handed to him spoke of the creative differences going on behind the scenes. At the time, fans blamed the actor instead of the entire team involved. Hopefully moving forward fans become more aware of how these things work so that way they can reach an understanding with the creatives that they're fans of.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters.
Source: MoviePilot