Sam Raimi Won’t Direct Spider-Man 4 For A Shocking Reason
Sam Raimi changed cinema with his Spider-Man trilogy, but his reason for not doing Spider-Man 4 is more shocking than you'd expect.
This article is more than 2 years old
Sam Raimi is one of cinema’s most influential directors, for several reasons. For one, he is the creator of the Evil Dead franchise, one of the most beloved and bizarre horror series of all time (and a continued reason to beat up on his friend and high school classmate Bruce Campbell). For another, he basically reinvented the template of the comic book movie with his early 2000s Spider-Man trilogy. That trilogy paved the way for the eventual ascendence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, eventually reaching a high point of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which featured Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and his own star, Tobey Maguire as various Peter Parkers (Peters Parker?). However, Sam Raimi has said he will not direct the already anticipated Spider-Man 4, for a pretty shocking reason: Tobey Maguire might break his neck.
Okay, let us be clear about what exactly Sam Raimi means by that in regards to Spider-Man 4. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sam Raimi revealed that as much as he loves the current MCU Tom Holland, he says he would pretty much feel obligated to only do Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire. He also recently told Screen Rant that there are no active plans for him to direct the next installment of the Spider-Man story. Jon Watts directed the MCU trilogy of films and appears to have moved on (and now has also moved on from the upcoming, ill-defined Fantastic Four movie). But the enormous box office receipts of each successive Spider-Man movie pretty much guarantee that Spider-Man 4 will happen with or without Sam Raimi and Tobery Maguire.
It also turns out that Sam Raimi had some pretty awesome plans for a Spider-Man 4 back in the day, including a planned Bruce Campbell cameo as a low-rent version of Mysterio. After the conclusion of his Sony Spider-Man movies, Raimi returned to the horror genre with the well-received Drag Me to Hell. After that comparatively stripped-down genre exercise, he made the oddball Oz the Great and Powerful with James Franco, his former Harry Osborn, which made solid box office but bewildered critics and fans.
While many would have expected Raimi’s return to superhero movies to be some version of Spider-Man 4, he joined Marvel Studios to helm Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness after the departure of original director Scott Derrickson. The movie premiered to a massive $260 million international box office opening and is already steamrolling its way to being one of the biggest movies of 2022.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may not be the much-longed-for Spider-Man 4, but it is Sam Raimi at his most Raimi in a long time and a much-needed dose of horror imagery for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We will just have to wait and see who finally gets behind the wheel of Spider-Man 4, but for now, we will just tell Sam Raimi to protect his neck.
