Anne Hathaway Talks Spider-Man 4 Casting And Her DC Past
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) almost had to find a different Catwoman, and it’s all Sam Raimi’s fault. As Super Hero Hype reports, Anne Hathaway, who played Selina Kyle in the third film of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, was all set to play a similar character in the unmade Spider-Man 4. Had Spider-Man 4 not been canceled, Hathaway isn’t sure she wouldn’t have been offered the Batman role at all.
Anne Hathaway Wouldn’t Have Been Catwoman If Spider-Man 4 Was Made
“If [Spider-Man 4′] had gotten made, I don’t know if I would’ve been considered for [The Dark Knight Rises],” Anne Hathaway said on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The actor went on to say that it was entirely possible that Nolan would have passed her over for the Selina Kyle role after concluding that Hathaway was “occupied in another universe.” Hathaway’s theory holds more weight when you consider who it was she was cast to play in Spider-Man 4.
The Black Cat
Felicia Hardy, AKA The Black Cat, is a cat burglar who dresses in a skintight cat-themed leather body suit, is more of an anti-hero than a villain, and occasionally swaps spit and other bodily fluids with Spider-Man. Sound familiar? Anne Hathaway isn’t wrong in assuming that Christopher Nolan would have had second thoughts about casting her in a role that she just played a year or two prior.
Tobey Maguire Was Set To Return For Spider-Man 4
Spider-Man 4 would have brought back fan favorite Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker as well as Kirsten Dunst as his love interest Mary Jane Watson. The returning cast would have been joined by new editions: Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy and John Malkovich as the Vulture—a character that eventually made it to the big screen courtesy of Michael Keaton in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film went into development in 2009, with Sony hoping for a 2011 release date. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t get very far into pre-production before Sony pulled the plug in favor of rebooting the Spider-Man universe with 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield. Anne Hathaway revealed on the podcast that she never even saw a script for Spider-Man 4, let alone the costume her character would have worn.
Anne Hathaway In The Dark Knight Trilogy
Instead, with Raimi’s Spider-Man universe all but gone for good, Anne Hathaway accepted the role of Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film coincidentally came out the same year as the Spidey reboot that killed Hathaway’s chances of playing a Marvel femme fatal. Cut to 2021, and suddenly there’s renewed interest in Sam Raimi’s unproduced Spider-Man 4 thanks to Tobey Maguire reprising his version of Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home opposite the current wallcrawler Tom Holland.
Spider-Man 4 Is Still A Possibility
Does that mean there’s still a chance fans could see Anne Hathaway don a white wig and a revealing catsuit in a future Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man movie? Through the power of the multiverse, anything is possible. Raimi has gone on record as saying he would totally be up for making Spider-Man 4 if the story was good and Tobey Maguire was willing to put on the Spider-Man suit one more time.”My love for the characters hasn’t diminished one iota,” Sam Raimi has been quoted as saying. Neither has ours, Sam. Neither has ours.
