Spider-Man 4 was dated for a 2011 release, and would have seen filmmaker Sam Raimi return for a movie pitting Peter Parker against The Vulture.
Rumours have swirled for years about Anne Hathaway playing the Black Cat and Angelina Jolie being enlisted as The Vulture's daughter. When Adrian Toomes died in battle with the wall-crawler, she was supposedly set to pick up where her father left off as a new character, "Vulturess."
During a recent interview with Cinema Blend, Raimi was asked about rumblings that he was eyeing Send Help star Rachel McAdams for a villainous role (she denied being attached to Black Cat several years ago).
"No. Yeah, we never had auditions for a female villain that I'm aware of," the director revealed. "Look, I talked to John Malkovich about playing the Vulture, and he was wonderful, and we got along great. But the movie never went [anywhere]."
Does this debunk the Black Cat and Vulturess claims? It certainly seems that way, and the idea of Vulturess has never sat particularly well with most fans. Even if the character's debut had been planned as a surprise twist, it would likely have been as unpopular as the changes made to Sandman and Venom in Spider-Man 3.
Raimi and Sony Pictures ultimately parted ways over creative differences, and the franchise was rebooted in 2012 with The Amazing Spider-Man. A sequel followed two years later, but the third and fourth movies—along with interconnected Sinister Six and Venom spin-offs—were scrapped when Sony partnered with Marvel Studios.
With that, Spidey was rebooted again, with Tom Holland taking over the role in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. He's played the hero ever since, and will return in this summer's Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Recently, Raimi said his versions of Spider-Man and Mary Jane "have gone elsewhere." He pointed out that the franchise is now "following a new artist," and noted that audiences are "really into [Tom Holland's] story."
As a result, Raimi believes it wouldn't "be right for me to go back and try and resurrect my version of this story." He's "had to pass the torch happily" and remains "honoured" to have held it for a time.
Raimi added, "Stan Lee’s great character — that a bullpen of writers in New York at Marvel had come up with stories for — he created the character, but so many people contributed, so many artists, that for a brief time I was handed the torch to carry on after 40 years of Spider-Man comics."
"And then after my three movies, I handed the torch off to someone else. And I think they’ve got to keep running with the storyline and the audience that is now following the torchbearer."
Do you think Spider-Man 4 should have become a reality, or was it right to reboot the franchise after the third movie?