What Happened Next? - 9 Planned Movie Sequels That Were Cancelled
5. Spider-Man 4
While Spider-Man 3 is widely considered the worst entry in the Tobey Maguire trilogy, it was also the highest-grossing, making a sequel a no-brainer.
So, director Sam Raimi quickly set to work on Spider-Man 4, but eventually decided not to make the film after realising he couldn't make the story work. Instead, Sony rebooted the character in 2012, screwed that version up in 2014, and here we are today with Tom Holland in the MCU. Smooth.
One of Spider-Man 3's biggest criticisms was the inclusion of too many villains, yet weirdly, Spider-Man 4 would have done the same. Characters like The Lizard (as played by Dylan Barker, setup in the previous movies as a possible villain), Vulturess (possibly played by Anne Hathaway), Vulture (played by John Malkovich), Black Cat, Mysterio (as played by Bruce Campbell, tantalising setup in prior movies) and even bad-guy team the Sinister Six were all talked about at one point or another, with Vulture supposedly acting as the main antagonist and the rest appearing in bit-parts or supporting roles.
On the heroic side of things, Maguire had signed on to return as Spidey, with Raimi telling MTV that his planned story also included Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane, though he did leave open the possibility of introducing a brand-new love interest:
"She's one of my favorite parts and it would be a shame not to have her in the picture. I'm hoping she'll be in it and I'm planning on having a story with her in it."
Interestingly, official storyboards from the film (drawn by Jeffrey Henderson) reveal Peter kissing a woman that isn't Mary-Jane, so this little love-triangle would likely have been the conflict Peter had to face in his non-Spidey life.
In that same MTV interview, Raimi also explained that the film would not include anything that isn't in the comic-books - "all the characters or villain or villains, whatever we decide to do will be from Stan Lee's creations or those that came after him."
All-in-all, Spider-Man 4 sounds... surprisingly similar to Spider-Man 3. Peter faces off against an entire suite of villains who later decide to join forces (Venom/Sandman in Spidey 3, Sinister Six in Spidey 4), while dealing with a complicated love triangle back home (Gwen/Mary-Jane/Peter in Spider-Man 3).