Alongside classic Marvel movies like 1998’s Blade and 2000’s X-Men, Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man movie, as well as the two sequels that followed, were instrumental in ushering in the era of enormously successful comic book movies that followed. Not only did these movies serve as great popcorn entertainment, but were so well-written and crafted that they still stand out as the cream of the crop in the highly-saturated superhero genre today. Even Spider-Man 3, which was met with criticism upon its release largely for its bloated plot, is a lot better than people give it credit for. Despite the endless memes the movie has produced in the years since its initial release, Spider-Man 3 still has plenty of fantastic moments and interesting character dynamics at play.

Revisiting the trilogy, it’s a shame that Sam Raimi’s planned Spider-Man 4 movie never saw the light of day, with the series instead being rebooted with 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. However, following the enormous critical and commercial success of Spider-Man: No Way Home – in which Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appeared as their respective incarnations of the wallcrawler – it appears likelier than ever that some version of Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 could hypothetically get off the ground, even if it doesn't happen in the way audiences might expect.

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Why Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 Never Happened

After his dissatisfaction with the experience of making Spider-Man 3, in which the studio forced Raimi down several regrettable creative avenues, the visionary filmmaker wanted to redeem the franchise in the eyes of fans. Unfortunately, Raimi didn’t feel the script was coming together in quite the way he had hoped, instead opting to leave the project behind rather than disappoint his audience. Speaking to Variety, Raimi later said:

The Evil Dead director has spoken at length over the years about his ideas for Spider-Man 4, which could have featured John Malkovich as the villainous Vulture alongside Anne Hathaway’s Felicia Hardy/Black Cat. Additionally, Raimi’s friend and frequent collaborator Bruce Campbell was considered to appear as Mysterio, with Dylan Baker also set to reprise his role as Curt Connors, who was finally set to transform into the Lizard after a years-long set-up. Among other characters considered for the project were Kraven the Hunter, Shocker and Rhino. After wrestling with the script for a long time, Raimi was unable to rein in the various plot threads and characters into something cohesive, which combined with inflexible studio deadlines ultimately killed his involvement in the project. As a result, The Amazing Spider-Man was born – a series that would also be scrapped after only two entries.

Given the popularity of No Way Home and the reappearance of the alternate timeline Spider-Men, it’s entirely possible that Tobey Maguire will return as Peter Parker in the future – with Sony reportedly making attempts to convince Marvel to bring the character back alongside Andrew Garfield in the follow-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Instead of bringing back Maguire’s Spidey for a movie, however, it may be a better idea to instead draw inspiration from one of the MCU’s most popular shows – What If…?

Marvel’s What If…? proves animated stories can work

Despite being the MCU’s first non-canon animated show to be released on Disney+, What If…? has become one of the service’s most popular shows nonetheless, with its first and second seasons receiving an impressive 94% and 89% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes. The show explores a series of alternate timeline stories, in which characters and events from the MCU are tweaked, subsequently delving into the ramifications of those changes. What If…? doesn’t pull its punches either, and although its impressive animation, fight choreography and colorful presentation may lead you to believe that the show is aimed at a younger audience, it isn’t afraid to take its characters to darker places than we typically see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Using the medium of animation also allows What If…? to provide the kind of spectacle in each of its episodes that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible in live action. This would likely fare well for a Spider-Man series starring Tobey Maguire – and could even mean that Raimi’s plentiful ideas for Spider-Man 4 could be given room to breathe instead of needing to be condensed or cut entirely. Animation would also give Raimi the freedom to choose when in Peter Parker’s life his story takes place, with the age of its actors no longer being as pressing an issue.It's also worth noting that the television landscape has changed a lot in the years since Raimi’s Spider-Man was released. The medium used to be a source of ridicule for actors, with many seeing it as an inferior form of storytelling – it was often seen as the end of a performer’s career once they ended up on television. These days, there’s a lot more prestige afforded to the medium, with What If…? managing to secure voice roles from many of the MCU’s A-list actors – meaning it shouldn’t be too difficult to get the required talent on board for the project.

Spider-Man 4’s animated storyboards show potential

A series of animated storyboards by storyboard artist David E. Duncan have been circulating the internet for a few years now, which were recently taken and animated by YouTube user and Spider-Man fan YBAM – and the results show a lot of potential for an animated Spider-Man project.

Resembling the pre-visualization animatics often used in the pre-production stage, the video really captures the feeling and energy of a Raimi fight scene, complete with dramatic music and sound effects. The scene showcases a portion of the battle between Spider-Man and Adrian Toomes – also known as the Vulture – and Toomes appears to be a suitably formidable foe for Spidey. The sequence is likely to whet the appetite of fans desperate to see the continuation of Raimi’s Spider-Man series become a reality.

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Spider-Man

Spider-Man is one of the biggest names in entertainment today. The superhero first appeared in the Marvel comic Amazing Fantasy #15 before becoming a leading figure in the Marvel comic-book universe.

Spider-Man has also featured in numerous films and a plethora of video games, most notably Insomniac Games' Spider-Man (2018) and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.