Director Sam Raimi has given one of his longest and most wide-ranging interviews to Rolling Stone while promoting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Part of the discussion is regarding what Raimi had planned for the never realised Spider-Man 4, which didn’t come to fruition after Spider-Man 3 was panned.
Firstly, Raimi says that he is sorry that the world never got to see a certain cameo that he had planned. “I miss the really great cameo we had designed for (Evil Dead star) Bruce Campbell.” The interviewer says; “the rumour was that he was supposed to play Mysterio (who would be played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the MCU)” and Raimi replies; “That was one of the possibilities. We had other things in mind, too, but that was one of them.”
Raimi continued to discuss some other ideas that were in development for Spider-Man 4; “And I missed Kraven the Hunter. We were going to work that character into the next Spider-Man. I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought that would be really unique. He’s the ultimate hunter, and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster of the skies. And I wanted to see Peter continue forward as a human being.”
While Kraven the Hunter didn’t end up being a part of the Raimi Spider-Man movies, Sony are now bringing him to life in his own spin-off with an all-star cast including; Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose.
Regarding Spider-Man 3, Raimi said; “It was a very painful experience for me. I wanted to make a Spider-Man movie to redeem myself for that. [The aborted] Spider-Man 4 — that was really what that was about. I wanted to go out on a high note. I didn’t want to just make another one that pretty much worked. I had a really high standard in my mind.”
It’s been a long time since Raimi has made any movie, let alone a big-budget comic book blockbuster, but it sounds as though Doctor Strange 2 has given him his directing mojo back. Check out our guide to the Spider-Man movies, ranked, to see if you agree with our order.