Spider-Man 4: the real reasons for its cancellation

Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes in film and comic book history. Such is its popularity that Marvel clarified that the new universe of the character will be called Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, according to the media Premiere in Mexico.

However, before the creation of a superhero cinematic world began, films were released "loosely." That is, each hero had his own story, although there were no crossovers between various members of the comics' universe. However, it did not mean they were bad films.

By contrast, the classic Spider-Man trilogy, starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi, was exceedingly well received by critics. According to the specialized media Espinof, the second installment of this saga managed to "transcend the fact that a tape based on a comic only reaches the reading public", making it a universal cinematographic event.

We see that it could have been the kick to later start expanding the world of superheroes, due to the public's interest on this type of stories. What not everyone knows is that there were actually plans for a Spider-Man 4, and even other planned sequels. Let's see why this did not happen.

The secret reasons for the cancellation of Spider-Man 4

According to La Tercera website, Sam Raimi could never stop thinking about the cancellation of Spider-Man 4. The basis of all this is in the creative differences he had with Sony, being a conflict that dragged on from the third installment, which had been very poorly received, both by fans and specialists.

This was never hidden by Sam Raimi, since he came to consider the film as "horrible", according to Sensacine. The explanation was quite simple: the pressures of the producer caused the director to change his original idea of the film.

In the film, we could see several shallow conflicts. On the one hand, Spider-Man had to face Sandman, the character that the director wanted to deepen, although he ended up having little screen time and his motivations were quite poor. At the same time, Peter Parker had a conflict with himself, hence the appearance of the superhero's “black” suit , which was actually caused by an alien symbiote.

We see that this transformation led him to act in a negative way, although without the desired dramatic effect (since many of these scenes did not fit the style of the character), so they ended up beng funny. However, he soon returned to his "good side" as the symbiote attached to another person, resulting in Venom.

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This third enemy was an express request from Sony. In the comics, he is one of the most beloved villains by fans, which is why they thought his inclusion would cause an impact bump in the community. The problem was that, having so many narrative areas to cover (including the fight with his best friend, Harry Orborn), the format of a single enemy from the previous installments was not followed, so the movie felt very empty.

After its poor reception, the director was given free rein to continue with Spider-Man 4, since it had had an excellent impact at the box office, thanks to the initial marketing. Even, other possible sequels were already being considered. However, Sam Raimi did not want to make the same mistake from the past of letting the producer "affect" his ideas. What he wanted was to create a unique Spider-Man movie, like the first two, with the intention of overcoming them.

The problem was time. Sony had an agreement that they had to release a Spider-Man movie every few years, otherwise, the rights would return to Marvel. Despite the director having some ideas (Vulture and Mysterio as villains), Sam Raimi realized that he could not meet the May 2011 deadline for release.

So, he decided to abandon the project, generating a subsequent restart of the saga with Andrew Garfield as the protagonist. However, after a long time, the specialized website of Fotogramas confirmed that Raimi will return to the world of Marvel, signing for the second installment of Doctor Strange. This fuels speculation of a possible return of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man.

Will it happen or is it a definitely frustrated plan? Only time will tell.