10 Superhero Movies That (Thankfully) Didn't Get Made

10. Spider-Man 4

Spiderman4 Sam Raimi blew the door wide open for superheroes on film, by bringing everyone's favorite wall crawler to the big screen in 2002. The film was a tremendous critical and financial success, and is remembered as one of the greatest superhero films ever made. It grossed a whopping $821 million, and after two sequels, the trilogy became one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time to the tune of $2.5 billion. It should come as no surprise, then, that Sony was interested in continuing the franchise under Raimi's direction with a fourth film, despite the mixed-to-negative reaction that Spider-Man 3 infamously received (after all, the film made nearly $900 million). The studio green-lit Spider-Man 4, and the film went into development in 2008 for a 2011 release. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst were set to reprise their roles, and Raimi threw around the possibility of several villains appearing; including the Lizard (played by Dylan Baker, reprising his role as Curt Conners from Spider-Man 2 and 3), the living vampire Morbius, The Vulture (to be played by John Malkovich) and Black Cat (to be played by Anne Hathaway). The film quickly fell into development hell as Raimi began to disagree with the studio about the direction the film should take, and eventually dropped out of the project after four script iterations. As we all know, the franchise was rebooted in 2012, with a sequel in production for a summer 2014 release date. Though the Spider-Man franchise was unbelievably successful, and generally very well received by audiences, it's clear that a fourth film would have been a mistake. It seemed that Raimi was grasping at straws as far as where he wanted the story to go, and after the tragic disappointment that was Spider-Man 3, a fourth endeavor felt desperate. Though audiences initially disagreed with the need for a full-on reboot of the franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man was a success and has taken Peter Parker in an exciting new direction. Spider-Man would have been rebooted sooner or later, and it was better to leave Raimi's trilogy alone and move on.
Contributor
Contributor

James is a 24 year old writer and filmmaker living in Portland, OR. He attended college for graphic design and writes for various sources on the web about film, television, and entertainment. You can view all of his work on his website, www.thereeljames.wordpress.com