Spider-Man 4 Was Set To Open With A Major Battle With Rhino, Shocker, Mysterio And More
Talk about opening with a bang.
Just a day after some of Jeffrey Henderson's excellent Spider-Man 4 concept art hit the net, the artist has revealed a little more about Sam Raimi's plans for the sequel.
io9 reached out to Henderson in the wake of the concept art release to ask about the context of some of the images, and in particular the shots of Mysterio being handed over to the police. Henderson confirmed that the idea of Mysterio being played by Bruce Campbell was floated (which would have been brilliant).
He confirmed that would have been part of an amazing sounding opening sequence, featuring a cavalcade of Spidey villains. It would have seen a montage of C and D- list villains that we knew would never be used as main antagonists: Mysterio, the Shocker, the Prowler, the old school-onesie-wearing version of the Rhino, maybe even the Stilt Man, etc.
That would certainly have ramped up the entertainment factor after Spider-Man 3, though there will inevitably be those who question whether adding in a load of villains was really the right tonic to a film that was criticised for having too many bad guys.
Henderson says Vulture would have been the main villain - in contrast, apparently, to what is being planned for Spider-Man: Homecoming according to rumours - and that Raimi had big, exciting new ideas for the classic character:
The thing we kept coming back to was that, as a character, everyone was going to dismiss the Vulture as just an old guy in a silly green suit. So we wanted to go the opposite way and really make him the most fearsome and formidable adversary that Spider-Man had faced in the series.
Again, it's a shame that never happened, but hopefully Marvel will redress the issues of the Amazing Spider-Man films and we'll not complain as much about this one not existing.