Spider-Man: 10 Dumbest Ideas Sony Had For The Franchise Before Teaming With Marvel

You thought Spider-Man 3 was bad? Well, things were only going to get worse in Spider-Man 4. It was producer Avi Arad who forced director Sam Raimi to shoehorn in Venom for that messy final act in the 2007 release, and after Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 had so perfectly captured the essence of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's early stories, Spider-Man 4 was poised to go down the Batman and Robin route.

Multiple screenplays were presented to Sony, and the movie eventually eyed John Malkovich to play The Vulture, a stellar casting addition it would have been fun to see become a reality. Anne Hathaway, meanwhile, was chosen as Black Cat...except this Felicia Hardy wouldn't adopt that moniker, and would instead battle Spidey as "The Vulturess."

That's as dumb as making the Sandman Uncle Ben's killer, and Sony's continued interference and ideas are what led to Sam Raimi ultimately deciding to walk away from the project.

Realising they didn't want to continue the franchise, Sony chose to tell Spidey's "Untold Story" in The Amazing Spider-Man - another dumb idea as all those elements were removed in reshoots to make the movie a copycat of 2002's Spider-Man - but had they allowed Raimi to stick to his vision, perhaps fans would have seen the Sinister Six assemble in an epic Spider-Man 6?