Sam Raimi Discusses Spider-Man 4 Villains
Oct 12, 2009 by Rob KeyesSam Raimi has some ideas for the villain(s) in Spider-Man 4 – what about you?
Spider-Man 4 has been receiving plenty of buzz in recent times with announcements and confirmations of it going into production next year for a 2011 release. On top of that, we’ve had countless reports and speculation about what storylines it may follow, the start of development for Spider-Man 5 & 6, and discussions of what villains will be the focus of the fourth installment in the super successful superhero franchise.
MTV spoke with Sam Raimi and got the director to discuss a bit about the villains of Spider-Man 4 and the results of a fan poll they ran on the site which saw The Lizard and Carnage come out on top as the most desired villains, with the highest percentages from an unknown number of votes.
Raimi responded to the two top choices but couldn’t reveal who they’ve selected as the villainous characters are for the next Spider-Man adventure.
“I love the Lizard… There’s a great story there in the Marvel comic books about Dr. Connors. I’m less familiar with Carnage.”
After this, you could tell Raimi wanted to be more open on the topic, but he must remain tight-lipped for obvious reasons with shooting not even expected to begin until next March. After a long pause, Raimi followed up by saying “I’m not allowed to say at this point.”
Normally, I’d think that The Lizard would be an obvious choice and that the other would be a character not introduced into the franchise yet. I can pretty much guarantee Carnage will not be in Spider-Man 4. After what happened with Venom in Spider-Man 3, they’ll be leaving the symbiotic villains behind until the franchise restarts and/or the Venom solo film gets underway.
However, Raimi later explains that the next movie doesn’t have so much to do with a character introduced in the films so far or about intertwining with/setting up the Venom spinoff. This partially puts a damper on The Lizard’s full introduction.
Of course, he could just be intentionally misleading. It seems like too much of a missed opportunity to not have The Lizard finally make an appearance after seeing Dr. Curt Connors introduced and slightly developed over the last few films.
Raimi continued by elaborating on the goal of Spider-Man 4′s story and how the villain will fit into that plan.
“What we’re trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome… Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain—and we’re trying this right now; we’re trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.”
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OK WELL IF MY COMMENT IS IN MODERATION SORRY FOR THE SWEARING BUT THAT`S MY OPINION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHY DO U KNOW IT`S GOING TO BE A “COMPLETE DISASTER” IF THEY BRING VENOM IN AGAIN HE`D STILL BE GOOD IF THEY TOOK OUT SOME HIS ABILITIES AND THIS SERIES IS CRAP WITHOUT MAGUIRE YOU GUYS REALLY SURPRISE ME THEY SHOULD`VE JUST ENDED WITH VENOM, CARNAGE, AND LIZARD, ARE YOU F*****G SERIOUS????????????
WHY the **** is this all happening i meant
oh and the poll on the left of this webpage can only go up to 2 villains how cute you guys seem to know alot about “how many villains” can work in a movie you really do.
i really can`t see why it`d be a “disaster” if they bring him in again HE`S JUST AN ALIEN CREATURE WITH GOO wat type of movie can`t handle an alien creature with goo he just needs to swing a little faster than spiderman and maybe have goo come out as tentacles what could be so impossible about that they just need to work hard but IT SHOULD`VE ENDED AT 4 MOVIES!!!!!! just cuz he was shit in the comics IT wouldn`t be a disaster it`d be better if he fought against maguire cuz WITHOUT MAGUIRE THE FRANCHISE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY DOES IT MATTER TO “BRING THE DIVERSITY OF THE COMICS to the screen” THIS MAKES NO SENSE YOUR THIRD MOVIE WAS ABSOLUTE CRAP IT WOULD`VE BEEN MOST NECESSARY TO STOP AT THIS ONE R U SERIOUS??????
SORRY FOR profanity but please keep that cooment there.
lets see the lizard,and carnage.in part 5,and 6 i hope to see more dock ock,scorpion,and venom.the other two that would work well would be kraven, and mysterio.
i also think the government would get involved with captureing and exposeing spiderman somehow and would love to see a kraven swat agent,and scorpion supersoldier chaseing after the spiderman,but lizard and carnage are musts. but i would love to see scorpion and he would bring j jona jameson closer to spiderman.
OH AND YOU CAN`T HAVE MYSTERIO EITHER IT WILL MAKE THE SERIES AND YOU SICK IF U KEEP DOING THIS PLEASE!!!!
john k
are you 10 years old? because you certainly talk like it.
yeah well i don`t have the real thoughts of a 10-year old.
I have no idea what that means. But you still haven’t answered my question…
i agree with jose on the peter parker crying thing,what’s up with that! stop the whining and crying already.he really looks stupid. people don’t don’t want to see superheroes cry as far as villans are concerned i think only one villian is sufficient for the movie electro,scorpian,kraven & the lizard are a few good candidates but no carnage or venom because that would mean you have to make spiderman very dark and agressive which will lead to an R rating movie.
@John K
Yes, we’re very cute. My site, my poll. Deal with it and be happy you can choose more than one villain.
How many good movies have more than two distinct villains?
Vic
Great way to do it. Bring back Norman Osborne. He did take the regenerative, super strength syrum and while people though that his body was layinig deep beneath his tomb rotting it could have actually been healing these past few years. Norman comes back and sees a world dominated by Spiderman and one without Harry, his son. We get a good actor in William Defoe and a great dynamic in the chemistry between Norman and Peter. Honestly thogh I doubt they will go that way.
Other way is take a chance and bring back Venom but do him right. Toppher Grace is a great actor and they could come up with a real good story on this one. But because of the mess up in the 3rd I doubt they woudl do that either.
Lizard is good, but not as a stand alone villain or a main villain, he would have to be more of a supporting villain to the main villain.
Kingpin, would just be trying to take the wohole SPiderman thing towards the Dark knight style with the mob. This may work if done correctly but I would rather the movie take on a more original approach and not cop out.
Carnage would be a disaster
Shocker, could work but he is not that popular, Mysterio would look ridiculous on screen, and MOrbious woudl be another cop out of the whole vampire genre and take away from teh film’s substance.
So it leave me with these three characters:
1-Vulture 2-Hobgoblin 3-Craven the hunter
I think that these three villain woudl be great, ESPECIALLY Vulture…Lets see what we get
If we see Morbius team up with Doc Connors’ Mr. Hyde character, I hope Connors doesn’t have a crisis of confidence and betray Morbius, as Morbius might get a hankerin’ for reptile blood…and Disney would absolutely say NO to a movie where we see someone “drain The Lizard”.
No you don`t. If Venom was done a little better in SM3 it still would be PG-13 right? Also Jose, they could`ve just worked somwhat harder to make him better in the movie if they had pleny of time. I wouldn`t rush them to make them become good in the movie though it was still too early for him. But i am just very confused from all types of news i hear.
M-Cat,
I`m 25 years old, but i`ve been smoking drugs. It`s just been making me all weird.
Vic,
You say even more than one villain will ruin the movie, and if people can like to think 3 villains is too many then you`re reffering just as well to Superman 2, wasn`t great but good. Not if the scripts are good and they take as long as they need without rushing too much to figure out how the villains are going too work. If even two villains ruin the movie, i think you should face your head up and look at the facts, there are movies that made it work, but if you don`t think it`s necessary to do more than one villain you should see what`s like to use one villain per movie, sometimes there are villains in there that can`t be introduced in the middle of the movie or can`t really have a story through the whole movie. I think it`s meant for every superhero to face more than one villain, i`m sure even if it`s only one superhero they can still take down the villains somehow. They have in the comics, haven`t they? There`s no reason why more than one villain shouldn`t work, it all depends on the right development. And obviously Vulture won`t work that`d be silly after the team of villains already faced and Shocker? Rhino? give me a break. I`m not sure y u think those villains would work.
Let me repeat again, i said y do you think those villains would work ? The villains are supposed to have a darker follow-up to each sequel, those Vulture/Rhino villains are too silly because they aren`t dark enough and inversed-rengery enough to follow what Peter has learned and faced in the series, even if they were one of the darker villains they are still too ordinary picture two things on the screen and see which one is meant how could either of those things be meant for Peter? You need to think which one crosses more wide-range and seeks deep into outcome of what Peter is supposed to learn with and use with his power it`s meant him to face the scarier villauins not some any ordinary villain it MAKES more sense him to face a villain like carnage, ( and he doesn`t need to be that violent, and he doesn`t need to be that grueling, it would not automatically b a “disaster” get over it!!!)
WAIt a minute, Venom and carnage aren`t goona be in the first movie of the new series are they? Tobey Maguire is the perfect Spiderman so they need to fight against him NOT a different Spiderman, THIS IS A DISASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@John K
I think one villain is best, two CAN work, but you go more than that and the odds are that the movie will not be as good.
Also, I’ve put you into auto-moderation due to your ranting, cursing comments. Once I see you chill out I’ll take you out of that penalty box.
Vic
I`m trying to not use or cover the profanity but i hear news that doesn`t make sense.
wat i meant is i`m trying to really cover the profanity
I agree that we’ve had too much ‘goblin. So that rules out the Hobgoblin for me. I really think that the Lizard should be in this film, they’ve been leading up to it for the past 3 movies for crying out loud. I’d love to see Kraven the Hunter in this as well since Lizard is NOT enough for the movie alone. Morbius would be cool, but I hope it doesn’t happen because I am SOOOOO sick of all this vampire stuff. Leave Morbius for the inevitable reboot in 10+ years. Electro could also be a good villain, but they would have to use a different costume. The one he wears in the comics is absolutely ridiculous and would look stupid on the big screen.
Andy S,
Each sequel i thought was supposed to have a darker challenge.
lol DanLister
I’ll go on the record that Venom/Carnage would not be my first choice. I wasn’t a big fan of Spidey-3, and it was exactly for the reason Vic has pointed out. Too many characters, too little time for character development.
That being said, its not villains alone. Too many heroes, supporting characters bog down development time too. Sandman got the raw deal in that movie, but time was given to Osborne, Sandman, Venom, Gwen Stacy as well as the needed time for Pete and Mary Jane. Too many characters killed the old Batman franchise (among other things), and nearly did in the Spider-man one after 3 (IMO).
I’ll be true in saying I’m intrigued with the Morbius idea, and joeslankas’s idea of him pushing the development of Dr. Connor’s character. A small cameo by Blade, a la Sean Conorey in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, would be a nice om-age to the trilogy if they ever want to Marvel Studio-ize Blade (or even Blade 4). It would be nice to finally make use of the alternate ending to Blade 2. I agree with the Vampire craze now, it would seem logical. Then again, I’m a horror fan, I’m probably biased.
What is really getting me is the whole “big part of New York” and that would force Peter Parker to “grow” and “change” comments.
So superman 2 and other movies had “too many villains”?
Venom done right. Screw the spin-off.
Maybe the reason u thought there were “too many villains” in there was because there wasn`t enough development for each of them? There are franchises that aren`t screwed up with having 3 villains in there, i think your problem is some of the most important characters don`t get enough screentime or that villains don`t make sense, like, “Let`s team up, we both want to kill him”. Well maybe it can make sense if they both get beaten by Spiderman, but the thing is though, it all depends on script, they film what they have in their story, if every thing is properly organized in place and it makes sense, maybe if they have as long as they need to to make the villains work it won`t be such a clogfount, y is everybody complaining and criticising Spiderman 3 over the “number of villains it had” there`s nothing wrong with using lots of villains once in a while, and there`s nothing wrong with the “length” of the movie, it all depends on the way they hate Spiderman and how reasonable it is. If you know it doesn`t depend on the script because they don`t know how to get the special effects right, were you there when they were filming?