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Tobey Maguire’s ‘Spider-Man 4’ Almost Happened, With Even More Villains

By David Cornell
Published on: 03:39 PST, Jun 4, 2016

Tobey Maguire was almost the iconic web crawler once more in Spider-Man 4, and he was set to go against several more villains. This was revealed in recently discovered storyboards featuring our friendly neighborhood superhero, drawn by filmmaker Jeffrey Henderson.

The images included such villains as Vulture, Mysterio, and some other lesser-known bad guys such as Stilt Man and Shocker. Vulture was set to be the main villain, as Mysterio was rumored to be the Bruce Campbell cameo, keeping the trend of his appearances throughout the series while Sam Raimi had the reins.

In the first film, Bruce Campbell had been the ring announcer when Peter Parker was still testing his powers in a not fully realized costume pre-dating the finished Spider-Man suit. The superhero-to-be was about to face off with Bonesaw, played by the late wrestling legend Randy “Macho Man” Savage, and Campbell basically told Peter that the name he’d chosen sucked. In the second film, Campbell was an usher who denied him access to see Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) perform. In the third one, Campbell was the waiter who suggested how to propose to Mary Jane.

Sadly, we never saw a Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire because of a power struggle between Sony Pictures and Sam Raimi, resulting in Venom being one of the least imposing villains in the series. Audiences weren’t amused with the film, especially with all of the singing and dancing, and the “emo” Peter Parker.

Had this failure never happened, we might have seen Toby Maguire reprise his role once more and go after several more villains. Some fans have claimed that adding too many villains is what ruins many superhero films, though in this case it was suggested that the extra villains would be part of an intro montage, possibly alongside scenes from the previous films. The montage appears to possibly end with the Bruce Campbell cameo as Mysterio’s famous dome falls off, and Spider-Man senses Vulture about to attack.

The fight with Vulture would have taken the two of them higher and higher, resulting in a helicopter crash against the side of a building. Jeffrey Henderson explained further on his site what Tobey Maguire would have faced in Spider-Man 4 and what happened to the film.

“I hope that one day I can, (or somebody can), finally tell the whole story of Sam Raimi’s ‘abandoned’ fourth Spidey movie. … It would’ve been one absolutely kick a** movie. [Seriously, we] were working on some [crazy cool] stuff, because everyone, from top to bottom, felt that Spidey 3 was a bit of a ‘missed opportunity,’ and we all really wanted to help Sam take SM4 to another level so he could end the series on a high note.”

Sony didn’t give it that chance and instead replaced Tobey Maguire with Andrew Garfield for two films until it bombed again. Now with Spider-Man back (almost) in the hands of Marvel and their cinematic universe, it seems audiences are finally happy with Tom Holland in the role.

The chances of Sam Raimi getting the opportunity he wants to try again, and Spider-Man 4 seeing the big screen after two reboots, are extremely slim.

Would you want to see Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi team up one more time to make the film a reality?

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[Feature image via Sony Pictures]

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