So, just why didn't Spider-Man 4 happen? The franchise had been a huge success up until that point and all the key cast members were set to return, so the signs were pointing to the movie actually happening. Despite all of that, the film was cancelled by Sony in January 2010. The reason for that ultimately boiled down to the script. A number of different screenwriters took a crack at it (including James Vanderbilt, David Koepp, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Gary Ross) and, four drafts later, director Sam Raimi still hated it. Unhappy with the direction the story was taking - and frazzled from being forced to add characters and story beats he didn't want to in Spider-Man 3 - the filmmaker walked away from the project in what has since been described as an amicable parting. Raimi has said that he envisioned Spider-Man 4 as being his grand finale, but unsure he could meet that 2011 release date, both he and the studio decided it was for the best to just scrap it. Scrap it they did, and what followed was a divisive reboot in 2012. Had Raimi stuck around, the franchise would have gone in a very different direction - there was even talk at one point of Vanderbilt writing Spider-Man 5 and 6 for Raimi to shoot back-to-back! What other mind-blowing facts are there about Raimi's Spider-Man films? Share any we missed down in the comments.
