If there’s one hero comic book writers love to torment the most, it has to be the friendly neighborhood superhero Spider-Man. There’s barely anyone else who is down on their luck more often than the web-crawler, and still, he manages to smile and keeps going on.
However, there are times when even the most hopeful of Marvel heroes can get crushed to the point where he loses his mind, and that is one of the possibilities that can be adapted by Sam Raimi, if he ever returns for Spider-Man 4.
Especially after the multiverse saga, the possibility of adapting an alternate universe story from some of the darker versions of Spider-Man is very real. And given Raimi’s expertise in dealing with horror and dystopia, it can turn out to be really good!
And we have one storyline in mind which is nothing less than a horror story for Peter Parker, but also brings together a fan-favorite matching from Raimi’s films.
What is Sam Raimi’s condition for making Spider-Man 4?
Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man trilogy revived the superhero genre in the early 2000s, and has since been one of the most revered Spider-Man adaptations ever. Tobey Maguire‘s portrayal of Peter Parker/Spider-Man is still beloved among fans, which is why fans were jumping with excitement when he returned for No Way Home.
However, there were talks of a 4th Spider-Man movie in Raimi’s series, which sadly got canceled. Recently, while talking to The Wrap, Raimi detailed what would it take for him to come back for a fourth film now:
“I think if we were to make a fourth ‘Spider-Man’ film, we’d probably have to figure out the journey that Tobey Maguire, his character would be going on, and what obstacles he had to overcome to achieve that growth personally… And I hope that the villain would be chosen based on a representation of that obstacle.”
We do agree Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker has grown a lot, but he did not exactly appear “happy” in Spider-Man: No Way Home. And there’s one comic book in particular that might account for his sadness, and adding in it Raimi’s horror mumbo-jumbo and a bit of fan theory magic, resulting in a hauntingly epic story.
The time when Spider-Man’s “love” killed Mary Jane
Kaare Andrews’ 2006-2007 miniseries Spider-Man: Reign, a story set 30 years into the future, shows a dystopian New York City where villains no longer exist in the traditional sense and superhero-ing is outlawed. There we meet an old Peter Parker, who has lost his cheeriness and hope due to past tragedies.
The main reason behind this change in Peter was revealed in the series’ issue #3, where it was shown that he was responsible for the death of his wife, Mary Jane Watson. The radioactivity that fuelled his powers corrupted his bodily fluids, including his sperm, causing Mary Jane to develop cancer and get withered to death horribly.
If Raimi comes back to direct Spider-Man 4, he can still use Tobey Maguire’s version from No Way Home, and take the back story from the above-mentioned mini-series, while adding some elements such as his road to recovery. How would he recover after such a heart-breaking wound you might ask? Well, that’s where Gwen Stacy comes in.
Gwen Stacy, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, made a brief appearance in Spider-Man 3. And it was known that she was into Peter Parker/Spider-Man as well. Being one of his known lovers from comics, she might become his crutch to redemption, and bring Peter back to being the hero we witnessed in No Way Home.
While there is no confirmation right now if Sam Raimi will indeed come back to continue Tobey Maguire’s trilogy, we can hope that he gets to finish the story in a more meaningful way in the future.
All the Spider-Man movies are available to stream on Disney+.
