Spider-Man 4 was supposed to be released in 2011, and would have seen filmmaker Sam Raimi step behind the camera to pit Peter Parker against The Vulture.
Ultimately, Raimi and Sony Pictures 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, this time with Tom Holland taking over the role in 2016's Captain America: Civil War.
Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both returned as their respective versions of Peter in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, leading to calls from fans for Spider-Man 4 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3. For some reason, Sony hasn't capitalised on that, despite the Multiverse making it possible to tell alternate reality stories.
Talking to ScreenRant about his new movie, Send Help, Raimi put an end to speculation that he might return for a fourth Spider-Man movie starring Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
Praising Marvel Studios for being "better than ever" after working with them on 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, 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."
It always seemed like wishful thinking that Spider-Man 4 might happen. On the plus side, Maguire's Spider-Man is rumoured to have a significant role in Avengers: Doomsday, where we've heard he could team up with characters like Deadpool and Wolverine.
Are you disappointed that Spider-Man 4 isn't moving forward with Raimi?