Why We've Never Been Closer To Raimi's Spider-Man 4

by Ewan Paterson

Raimi's Spider-Man 4 - The Rare Nostalgic Superhero Sequel That Actually Makes Sense

Spider Man: No Way Home Tobey Maguire
Marvel

The last big thing I want to caveat with all of this discussion is that I think that the overall bent towards nostalgia we've seen in movies over the last five-to-10 years is really boring. I'm on the record as a No Way Home hater, and abducting Michael Keaton's Batman for The Flash was borderline criminal. I would much rather see something new and original than dip back into the well of an IP that has gone way past the point of saturation. However, legacy sequels can and indeed have yielded tremendous results in the past, with Ryan Coogler's Creed the standout example. Even if the impulses that lead to nostalgic filmmaking are largely cynical, with the right people involved, valid and affecting cinema can still be created.

This is my way of saying that, even if it was made for the wrong reasons, a legacy Spider-Man sequel headed up by Raimi that picked up with Peter and MJ as middle-aged adults could be worthwhile. More recent Spidey stories have shown a willingness and enthusiasm from creators and audiences to engage with aged incarnations of the character, and while Raimi was smothered by the machinery of the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, all the flourishes that were there tell us that he can still create compelling comic book cinema that is also uniquely him.

To me, that is more worthwhile than another MCU film or the vast majority of announced comic book movies, for that matter. Conceptually it may seem trite, but there's more that Raimi could accomplish with this interpretation of the character than any of the other live-action Spider-Mans we've gotten within the last decade.

Does Spider-Man 4 need to happen? No, absolutely not - Kirsten Dunst is more than right on that front. Raimi's films are 20 years old and have left an indelible imprint on the character and genre. But if it were to come together somehow - and the odds are better than they once were - then it could be so much more than just another nostalgic legacy sequel.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.