Spider-Man 4 (cancelled flim)

"Spider-Man 4" was the planned sequel to Spider-Man 3, for what would have been the 4th film in Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man" film series that was planned to release to theaters on May 6, 2011.

## Plot:

The storyline for "Spider-Man 4" was going to take place 5 years after the events of "Spider-Man 3"*.* Peter Parker was going to betray Mary-Jane Watson and enter a new relationship with Felicia Hardy, A.K.A. the Black-Cat. However, they were going to be brought into conflict when Peter was going to kill Felicia's father, the sinister super villain known as the Vulture. The planned storyline ended with a despondant and regretful Peter losing his powers and discarding his Spider-Man suit in a dark alleyway on a stormy night, ending the franchise on a sour note.

## History:

In spite of the lukewarm fan reception to part 3, its impressive box office score convinced Sony to attempt to make a fourth film.

Development began in 2008, with Raimi attached to direct and the core cast of the previous films to return. Come 2009, however, Raimi dismissed the rumors that all three films were being made, instead confirming that only the fourth was under development. Sony hired James Vanderbilt in October of 2008 to pen the screenplay, after contacting David Koepp, the writer of the first film. The script underwent further revision by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and once more by Gary Ross in October of 2009.

On the subject of villains, Raimi considered showcasing the transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into the Lizard, with Dylan Baker reprising his role. He also had plans to upgrade Bruce Campbell to a more significant role than his prior cameos. In December 2009, it was reported that John Malkovich was in talks to play the Vulture|Vulture, with Anne Hathaway playing Black Cat.

Spider-Man has a sticky situation to crawl out of. As reported by Deadline Hollywood, Spider-Man 4 is caught up in a web of disagreements that’ll likely keep it from being released on May 5th, 2011 as planned. Further complicating things, Raimi reportedly went through four revisions of the script, with different writers, and still "hated it". With so many issues, Sony cancelled the film in January 2010.

## Cast:

* Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson
* Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Conners/The Lizard
* Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy/The Black-Cat
* John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes/The Vulture
* Bruce Campbell as Quentin Beck/Mysterio
* Rosemary Harris as Aunt May Parker
* J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
* Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy
* James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy
* Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson
* Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant

## Sam Raimi's thoughts on the film:

Raimi admitted to being "exhausted" with the "tremendous amount of delegation" needed to make "gigantic" movies like the Spider-Man films. However, it ultimately came down to an inability to get together a suitable story that led him to pass on a fourth installment of the blockbuster franchise. "It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn't get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn't get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, "I don't want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn't make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you've been planning anyway." And [Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, "Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio's money, and I appreciate your candor." So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios."

## Why "Spider-Man 4" was cancelled:

1. Spider-Man 3 was not well received by critics, audiences and fans.
2. Sam Raimi was displeased with how Spider-Man 3 turned out.
3. The release date became an issue since Sam Raimi couldn't meet the Summer 2011 release date that Sony wanted.
4. Sony wanted multiple villains in the film but Sam Raimi wanted to stick with only one.
5. The storyline championed by Raimi was dour and downbeat, with a main antagonist that wasn't seen as marketable enough by Sony executives, who preferred someone more visually interesting, like Electro or Carnage.
6. Tobey Maguire is getting kinda old (possibly too old to be Peter Parker).

## Results:

1. Spider-Man 4 was permanently cancelled.
2. Sony and Marvel hit the reset button with two reboot films The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. Then in 2017, Sony released the most recent reboot Spider-Man: Homecoming and its 2019 sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
3. Elements from the cancelled film would be used for the two reboot film series The Amazing Spider-Man and the MCU films Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far from Home, as well as the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
4. Sam Raimi, the director of the original Spider-Man trilogy is directing the upcoming Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness film and could bring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to MCU.

## Trivia:

* Jeffrey Henderson later revealed in June of 2016 the storyboards for Spider-Man 4 showing what the film might have been like had if it was made.