Shortly after the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, rumors began to do the rounds that director Sam Raimi was in talks with Marvel Studios to helm another upcoming project, and the filmmaker has since been linked to three different movies - one of which may never even happen.
Raimi was said to be one of the "established filmmakers" Kevin Feige was looking at for Avengers: Secret Wars, and more recently, separate rumors claimed that he was in talks to direct Spider-Man 4 - as in, Sony Pictures' No Way Home follow-up starring Tom Holland - and... Spider-Man 4 - a direct sequel to his original trilogy starring Tobey Maguire.
So, is he attached to any of these films?
“I don’t have any plans,” Raimi told The Wrap when asked about a possible return to the MCU on the red carpet of the Boy Kills World premiere. “But I would love it!”
When asked about revisiting his Spider-Man trilogy for another instalment with Maguire, Raimi explained his thought-process for the (hypothetical) story.
"I’d have to know what the next thing that character has to learn. I’d have to talk with Tobey, and the writers, and really figure out what his personal growth for this episode would be. I think if we were to make a fourth Spider-Man film, we’d probably have to figure out the journey that Tobey Maguire his character would be going on, and what obstacles he had to overcome to achieve that growth personally,” he continued. “And I hope that the villain would be chosen based on a representation of that obstacle.”
It sounds like Raimi would definitely be interested if the opportunity presented itself, but if he has had serious talks with the studio about boarding any of the above projects, he's clearly not ready to confirm anything for the time being.
As for the Spider-Man 4 that is definitely happening, Sony's Tom Rothman and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige are rumored to have had some disagreements when it comes to the overall plot, with the latter hoping to scale the Multiverse elements back for a smaller story. Rothman, meanwhile, is said to want to capitalize on No Way Home's success by bringing Maguire and Andrew Garfield back as their respective takes on Peter Parker.
Holland will, of course, be back as the MCU's Spidey, but the actor is believed to be "growing wary" of playing the iconic hero, so this could be his final time in the red and blue suit.
No Way Home scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are currently working on the script, but we still don't know which of the Wall-Crawler's fearsome foes will be causing problems for Peter and co. Most of Spidey's major bad guys have already been utilized in previous films (Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, etc), but a recent rumor claimed that the still untitled sequel will feature a villain we haven't seen in live-action yet.