When it comes to the most disappointing comic book movies that were planned but never produced, which one tops the list? Is it Tim Burton’s Batman Continues? Guillermo del Toro’s Doctor Strange? Perhaps JJ Abrams’ Superman: Flyby? Nah, there’s only one correct answer: the ungodly spate of cancelled Spider-Man movies. That’s right! It all begins with Tobe Hooper and Joseph Zito’s ill-fated attempt for Cannon Films in the mid-80s, followed by James Cameron’s failed attempt to team with his Titanic star, Leonardo DiCaprio, to play the role of Peter Parker, before DiCaprio’s good pal Tobey Maguire won the part for Sam Raimi. Then there’s Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, a project that continues to fuel rumors more than 15 years after it was declared dead by Sony Pictures. Of course, with Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six spin-off and Bad Bunny’s El Muerto also being dead on arrival, the central question looms: what happened to every cancelled Spider-Man movie thus far?
It all goes back to 1985. That year, famed indie producer Roger Corman lost the film rights to Spider-Man. Once Marvel Comics optioned the property to Cannon Films with the stipulation that a Spider-Man film must be produced by 1990, it considered iconic horror master Tobe Hooper to direct. Busy with Invaders from Mars and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Hooper was replaced by Joseph Zito following his work on Cannon Films’ epic Chuck Norris action flick Invasion USA. Zito hired The Outer Limits scribe Leslie Stevens to pen a Spider-Man story, which was so mortifying and off-brand that Stan Lee became irate and immediately demanded rewrites. The story would have involved Peter Parker being targeted by a nefarious scientist who injects the shy photographer with a radioactive serum, mutating him into a giant, hairy, eight-legged human-tarantula. Once Spider-Man, under his hideous new visage, refuses to join the scientist’s mutant master-race, Peter Parker fights back and tangles with several mutated monsters inside a laboratory.
For hardcore horror hounds, that treatment sounds heavenly. Alas, Stan Lee was so incensed about how Stevens defiled and bastardized his beloved comic book character that he demanded a new story be written. Cannon caved and tapped Ted Newsom and John Brancato to write a new script, which featured a Spider-Man origin story. The plot concerned Peter Parker and his mentor, Doctor Octopus, who became deformed by the Cyclotron in an attempt to unlock the Fifth Force. Golan and Barney Cohen made a few script changes, and Cannon allotted roughly $15-20 million for Zito to make the film. Although the film never reached the casting phase, Tom Cruise, a then up-and-comer, was considered to play Peter Parker. Bob Hoskins was reportedly considered for Doc Ock, Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall were in the running for Aunt May, and Peter Cushing was considered to play a compassionate scientist. Meanwhile, Stan Lee expressed interest in portraying J. Jonah Jameson.
Believe it or not, Superman tragically killed Spider-Man on the big screen without even realizing it. Indeed, Cannon’s 1987 release of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace was such a critical and commercial failure for Cannon Films that it could no longer afford to produce Spider-Man at the agreed-upon budget. Slashing the cost to $10 million, Zito left the project over creative differences. The film lingered in purgatorial limbo for the next three years, with less money and far inferior talent attached. The script became so unsalvagably awful that the movie could not move forward. Then came the promise of a James Cameron Spider-Man movie after Cannon Films lost the rights.
In 1990, Carolco Pictures purchased the film rights to Spider-Man for $5 million from Menahem Golan. James Cameron, who delivered the mega-hit Terminator 2 for Carolco a year later, was hired to write, direct, and produce a much darker, grittier, R-rated version of the Spider-Man mythology. This occurred while Cameron was finishing True Lies, with Variety reporting that Cameron wrote a new Spider-Man screenplay. However, it was merely a recycling of the script Newsome and Brancato wrote for Cannon Films with Cameron’s name added. Months later, Cameron delivered a detailed 57-page script/treatment dubbed a “Scriptment,” which has since leaked online, detailing Peter Parker’s much darker origin as Spider-Man.
Decades before Christopher Nolan put a dark spin on cinematic superhero lore, Cameron’s concept for Spider-Man was a violent, sexy, R-rated reimagination. His story would have entailed Spider-Man taking on Electro and Sandman as the primary archenemies. Character alterations included changing Electro’s alias from Max Dillon to Carlton Strand, and Sandman from Flint Marko to Boyd. Plot-wise, Cameron’s version would have involved Sandman being mutated by accident in an atomic experiment gone haywire, with citywide blackouts and strange magnetic phenomena climaxing atop New York’s World Trade Center. Spider-Man would fend off Electro and Sandman before revealing his true identity to Mary-Jane Watson. The film would have featured intense violence, excessive profanity, and a graphic sex scene between Peter and Mary-Jane on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Although casting never became official, Cameron wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play Peter Parker, whom he’d soon work with on Titanic. Cameron also reportedly eyed Nikki Cox and Robyn Lively to play Mary Jane, Jim Carrey to play Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin, Lance Henriksen as Carlton Strand, aka Electro, Michael Biehn as Boyd, aka Sandman, Bill Paxton as the Burglar, Maggie Smith as Aunt May, and Michael Douglas and R. Lee Ermey as J. Jonah Jameson. Meanwhile, Cameron’s longtime buddy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was set to make a cameo as Dr. Otto Octavius, which would have set up Doctor Octopus for future spinoffs. Of course, Jim Carey went on to play The Riddler in Batman Forever, and Schwarzenegger soon went on to star as Mr. Freeze in DC’s Batman & Robin.
Cameron’s version of Spider-Man endured various drafts, while retaining elements from his concept and the Newsome/Brancato script. Ethan Wiley did a pass involving Peter embarking on a hallucinatory, Kafkaesque odyssey after being bitten by a toxic spider. Neil Ruttenberg wrote a draft involving a violent hijacking of the New York Stock Exchange. Writer Frank LaLoggia had an idea about a flurry of cash raining down on New Yorkers as a way to begin the story. Although Carolco extended Golan’s rights to Spider-Man through 1996, Carolco went bankrupt and had to pull the plug on James Cameron’s Spider-Man in 1992.
A lengthy legal battle ensued in court, the boring details of which we’ll mercifully spare you all. By 1999, Columbia and Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to Spider-Man, with Sam Raimi helming a successful trilogy with Tobey Maguire in the title role. As you know, some aspects of Cameron’s script crossover with Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, notably Sandman’s villainous arc.
As for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, it all started in the spring of 2007. Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 opened in theaters on May 4, 2007, and obliterated the box office competition, turning an estimated $250 million budget into a massive $894 million worldwide moneymaker. Yet, despite the tepid reception from critics and fans of the first two franchise entries, Sony felt good enough about the economics to produce a fourth Spider-Man film.
In 2008, development on Spider-Man 4 officially commenced, with Raimi attached to direct once more and the main cast slated to return to their iconic roles, including Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. In October 2008, Sony hired screenwriter James Vanderbilt to amend the script after David Koepp was contacted. Remember, Koepp wrote the screenplay for Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie. Although Koepp declined, Vanderbilt’s script was revised by famed playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. In March 2009, Sony announced on their Twitter account that Spider-Man 4 would be released in theaters on May 6, 2011. Shortly after, the film officially went into pre-production with Sony’s blessing.
By October 2009, Gary Ross was hired to rewrite the script. However, the main reason Spider-Man 4 never got made came from Raimi’s deep dissatisfaction with the various iterations of the script and the lack of a compelling story. Raimi already detested how Spider-Man 3 turned out, calling it “Awful,” and despising how he was all but forced to include Venom as a villain in the movie when he felt Sandman and New Goblin were sufficient.
While developing Spider-Man 4, Raimi expressed early interest in showcasing Dr. Curt Connors’ full transformation into Lizard, a prominent Marvel villain. At the time, Dylan Baker was slated to reprise his role as Connors. In December 2009, after Sir Ben Kingsley was briefly considered, it was reported that John Malkovich was being eyed to play Vulture as the primary villain in Spider-Man 4. Soon after, Anne Hathaway was in talks to star as Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, the notorious Marvel cat burglar who often toes the line between heroism and villainy. Ironically, Hathaway would go on to play Black Cat’s DC counterpart, Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
Although Raimi was impressed with Hathaway’s audition as Black Cat, Kate Beckinsale was also in the running and even performed a read-through with Tobey Maguire. However, Raimi was holding out hope for Angelina Jolie to play the role. According to Raimi’s longtime storyboard artist, Jeffrey Henderson, in the Movies Go Fourth podcast, he was instructed to use Jolie’s visage for the storyboards during pre-production. Bruce Campbell, Raimi’s lifelong friend and collaborator who made hilarious cameos in the first three Spider-Man movies, was reportedly slated to portray iconic Marvel supervillain Mysterio in Spider-Man 4. According to Henderson, Mysterio would have appeared as part of an opening montage that depicts Spider-Man capturing various D-grade villains such as the Shocker, the Prowler, the Stilt-Man, and the Rhino. The sequence would have ended with Peter Parker bringing Mysterio into police custody, where Campbell would campily decry, “I’ll get you, Spider-Man!” An alternative scene would have found Peter arriving at Aunt May’s apartment for dinner. Aunt May would apologize, saying, “Oh, Peter, I completely forgot about tonight.” As Peter says, “It’s okay, Aunt May,” and pushes his way through the door, Bruce Campbell would have suddenly appeared in the apartment, and given fans a hilariously awkward moment. Now go and listen to the podcast for the full details on how the scene would have transpired.
Despite the preparation that went into Spider-Man 4, including storyboards and constructed sets, Raimi was simply tired of negotiating with the massive corporate demands that go into making such an expensive superhero movie. Part of Raimi’s reluctance stemmed from Sony’s 2010 mandate to make the film a 3D spectacle as a way to capitalize on the mega-success of Avatar and the subsequent bevy of post-converted 3D movies that were all the rage at the time. Sony even pressured Raimi to meet with James Cameron to discuss the 3D technology created for Avatar. However, Raimi declined, claiming he had never shot a movie in 3D before and required far more prep time during pre-production if he was going to utilize the cutting-edge technology.
In 2013, Raimi confessed to MTV that he was simply “exhausted with the tremendous amount of delegation” that goes into making such gigantic blockbusters, adding: “It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway.’ And [Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, ‘Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio’s money, and I appreciate your candor.’ So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios.”
Of course, it’s hard not to think of Spider-Man 4 without wondering about the potential plot of the film. Fortunately, more details about the story have been recently divulged. According to Henderson, Spider-Man 4 would have kicked off with Vulture working in disguise as a Black Ops mercenary, doing illegal dirty work for the government and earning his scavenging moniker for “leaving nothing but bones behind.” After being wrongly accused of committing serious crimes, Vulture is sent to prison. Elsewhere, with Mary Jane out of the picture, Peter Parker has become more comfortable in his skin and more at ease with his heroic role as Spider-Man. But when Vulture breaks out of jail and begins terrorizing the city, Spider-Man must utilize all of his resources to bring the vicious, hyper-violent villain down for good. As Henderson tells it, the second half of Spider-Man 4 would have kept viewers off balance with a slew of story twists and turns that dovetail into a show-stopping finale, putting Peter Parker in more peril than ever before. Of course, some of these story elements were carried over to the subsequent non-Raimi Spider-Man efforts, with Lizard notably appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man and Vulture terrorizing Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Tobey Maguire also reprised his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, further fueling speculation about his potential return to the MCU. Still, it’s hard not to imagine what could have been with Raimi at the helm.
While promoting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness one year later, Raimi left the door open for his return, telling Fandango: “I’ve come to realize after making Doctor Strange that anything is possible, really anything in the Marvel universe, any team-ups. I love Tobey. I love Kirsten Dunst. I think all things are possible. I don’t really have a story or a plan. I don’t know if Marvel would be interested in that right now. I don’t know what their thoughts are about that. I haven’t really pursued that. But it sounds beautiful. Even if it wasn’t a Spider-Man movie, I’d love to work with Tobey again, in a different role.”
In July 2023, Thomas Haden Church, who played Flint Marko aka Sandman in Spider-Man 3, told Comic Book that Spider-Man 4 may still be in the cards, stating: “There’s always been some kind of…I’ve heard rumors…that Sam Raimi was going to do another [Spider-Man movie] with Tobey [Maguire] and if that happens, I would probably campaign to maybe at least do a cameo.”
Despite rumors to the contrary, in April 2024, Raimi told Deadline that he has not yet begun work on Spider-Man 4 and has not discussed the project with Tobey Maguire.
Okay, so the next cancelled Spider-Man movie dates back to 2013, when Sony announced two follow-ups to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with release dates for June 10, 2016, and May 4, 2018, respectively. Although the fourth film never truly got off the ground, Andrew Garfield was contracted to appear in the third installment. Paul Giamatti also confirmed his return as Rhino in the third movie, and Marc Webb was later announced to return as the director. A month later, Webb bowed out, and the script went through various iterations from different scribes, including Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Yet, once Marvel Studios and Sony partnered for a franchise reboot two years later, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 were abruptly dashed. There were also early discussions about a Black Cat and Silver Sable spin-off with director Gina Prince-Bythewood attached, but nothing materialized.
Later in 2013, Drew Goddard attempted to make the supervillain movie The Sinister Six for Sony. Conceived as a prequel to The Amazing Spider-Man 3, the story would have picked up immediately following the events in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The plot would have followed Harry Osborn recruiting the most formidable villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, which changed the original comic lineup to include Doc Ock, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, Rhino, Vulture, and Green Goblin as the leader. Held over from The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield would return as Spider-Man, Dane DeHaan would play Green Goblin, Paul Giamatti would reprise his role as Rhino, and in a casting change, Matthew McConaughey was recruited to play Vulture.
While Venom was ultimately chosen as a spin-off instead, The Sinister Six was also designed as a potential spin-off to The Amazing Spider-Man. In the end credits for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, advanced weapons belonging to the villains listed above were unveiled, seemingly confirming their inclusion. However, Goddard expressed a desire to remain faithful to the comics and include original Sinister Six members Sandman and Electro. Yet, because the movie was conceived as a redemption story for Spidey’s archvillains, the expectation was that Peter Parker would hardly appear in The Sinister Six. Even so, Sony tagged the movie with a November 11, 2016, release date. Sadly, when Marvel Studios launched a new Spider-Man franchise in 2015, The Sinister Six was postponed and eventually deep-sixed.
In 2018, Goddard claimed his screenplay for The Sinister Six could still be used in the future. Sony’s Amy Pascal admitted the studio had plans to use Goddard’s script in some way, possibly in a Tom Holland Spider-Man movie. Alas, Pascal left Sony for Universal Pictures in 2019. Meanwhile, with the abysmal critical and financial performances by Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom: The Last Dance, Sony halted all plans to produce more Spider-Man spin-offs that did not heavily feature Peter Parker, leaving the Sinister Six in the cold. Dead cold.
Once The Sinister Six was nixed, Sony redirected focus to El Muerto, a minor Spider-Man character and masked Luchador who begins as an enemy and ends up as an ally. Following his amusing performance in Bullet Train, Sony tapped musician and former professional wrestler Bad Bunny to star as El Muerto in an official Spider-Man spin-off movie. Introduced in the comics in 2006, El Muerto is the alias of Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez, the son of a famous wrestler killed in the ring by the God, El Dorado. After squaring off with Spider-Man in the wrestling ring and nearly unmasking the hero, El Muerto uses his superpowered wrestling mask to join forces with Spider-Man to defeat El Dorado.
After green-lighting the project, Bad Bunny appeared at the 2022 CinemaCon to promote El Muerto for Sony. The film was slated to open theatrically on January 12, 2024. Early in development, Gravity writer Jonas Cuaron and Blue Beetle scribe Garreth Dunnet-Alcocer were hired to write and direct El Muerto. However, the production hit a major snag when the 2023 WGA strike occurred, resulting in several script rewrites and production delays. Coupled with his busy touring schedule and creative differences with the studio, Bad Bunny exited the project in July 2023. Although efforts to revive El Muerto occurred in January 2024, with plans to make it a standalone film, it’s the latest in a tiring litany of cancelled Spider-Man movies.
As disappointing as many of these cancellations are, the biggest takeaway is how studios foolishly continue to prioritize a release date years away over a well-conceived story and finished screenplay. While the trend continues for huge tent-pole superhero movies, at least James Gunn has vowed that DC will never begin a movie production without a completed script. That’s a start. Meanwhile, for Marvel, all eyes turn to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth entry in the newfangled Tom Holland franchise. It’s safe to say the film won’t be cancelled, as it’s currently filming in the UK for a July 31, 2026, release.
And there we have it. With a few minor projects and spin-offs aside, that’s generally what happened to the most notable Spider-Man movies that have been cancelled thus far. If you had to choose one that you would pay hard money to see if it did get made, which would it be? Let us know in the comments below!
