The Spider-Man series has evolved in unusual ways since Sam Raimi’s first entry in 2002. The character has been rebooted twice, numerous planned sequels and spin-offs (like Spider-Man 4 and The Sinister Six) have been hyped and then cancelled, and Spidey is now a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a development that shocked – and delighted – fans the world over.

He’s had a wild ride, and long may it continue. Like any major series, the franchise has collected a bucket load of deleted and alternate scenes that were nixed from the theatrical cuts. This footage can range from small character beats to action sequences and major cliffhangers for the next entry.

Studios will often opt to overshoot a blockbuster, giving themselves options in editing to focus on a particular character or subplot; or removing pieces to save them for another movie or streamline the story they're actually working on. The Amazing Spider-Man movies, in particular, became well known for this approach, with both movies having a generous gallery of deleted footage.

Presented here are 15 Deleted Scenes From Spider-Man Movies You Won’t Believe Were Cut, from cheesy humor to important subplots. In a few cases, these scenes work best on their own, but some truly would have helped improve their respective entries.

Norman Osborn's Frozen Head - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Norman Osborn Head The Amazing Spiderman 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 laid down a lot of groundwork for an extended universe, seeding numerous characters, subplots, and easter eggs throughout. The ending strongly implied Spidey would face off against The Sinister Six in the next entry, with the ending featuring a scene where The Gentleman walks through Oscorp, looking at the outfits for villains like The Vulture and Doc Ock.

Originally, this tour was going to reveal Norman Osborn’s frozen head which – according to director Marc Webb – would have set-up Norman's return as the villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Of course, the series got rebooted following the lackluster response to the movie, so all this setup came to nought.

At least it confirms plans to make Cooper a larger part of the franchise, since he was perfect casting for Norman and his appearance in the second movie was much too brief.

Aunt May Saves A Little Girl - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Aunt May closes a door while smiling in Spider-Man: Homecoming

Marisa Tomei has proven to be a fun addition to the MCU as a younger take on Aunt May, although she didn’t get a lot to do in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It turns out that May was supposed to get a heroic moment of her own during the story; one that showed where Peter got his own sense of right and wrong.

Tomei described the scene in an interview, which showed May saving a little girl from some unspecified danger in the neighborhood. Peter sees this happen, but when May returns home, she doesn’t mention it.

Tomei was disappointed this scene was removed, since it showed a new side to Aunt May’s character and added another layer to her relationship with Peter, where they both keep secrets from one another.

The Lizard Kills Dr. Ratha - The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man Lizard Lab Coat

Following the cancellation of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, Sony decided to flip the reboot switch on the series rather than recasting everyone. They announced that while The Amazing Spider-Man would retell the character's origin, it would add new revelations about Peter’s parents.

Sadly, most of this “Untold Story” was cut, including a major sequence where Spider-Man follows Dr Connors – aka The Lizard – to his lab, following the school attack. Peter learns more of Connor’s plan to infect the city and gets an insight into his madness.

Then the nasty Dr. Ratha shows up, shooting Connors and spraying Peter with a sedative. Ratha hints at Peter’s heritage and why Richard Parker’s research was so important, before The Lizard reappears and bites the good doctor’s head off. This scene filled in a few blanks in the story, in addition to explaining why Ratha disappears midway through the film.

Marko Disguises Himself As A Sand Castle - Spider-Man 3

Thomas Haden Church as Sandman in Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 suffered from way too many cooks, with the studio, producers, and the filmmaking team all trying to cram their ideas into it. This led to a messy story with too many characters and storylines, and even director Sam Raimi has admitted it didn't work very well.

Raimi’s original plan was to focus on Sandman and Harry Osborn’s Goblin as villains, but he was essentially forced to include Venom as well. This had a knock-on effect on Sandman’s screentime, with some key scenes getting snipped.

The most important featured his sick daughter playing in a park, where she sees a large sand castle. She walks over and touches it, but as she leaves, she looks back to see it’s gone. Marko is then seen watching her leave, promising not to let her down. It’s a nice character beat, and it later got restored for the Editor’s Cut.

The Green Goblin Oscorp Rampage - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Dane Dehaan as the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Harry Osborn’s Green Goblin makes his dramatic entrance in the final act of the second movie, appearing in front of Peter and Gwen after Electro is defeated. Once he realizes Spider-Man’s true identity, the two have an epic brawl inside an old clock tower, leading to Gwen’s tragic death.

Some connective tissue was removed between Harry’s transformation and this battle, where Oscorp security tries to take him down before he escapes. After dispatching them with a pumpkin bomb, he then picks up arch-enemy Donald Menken with his glider, and drops him to his death.

His secretary Felicia Hardy also gets a look at the transformed Harry - who is shocked by his own reflection - before flying off to face Spider-Man. This passage was likely removed to keep Harry’s appearance a mystery, thus making his entrance all the more dramatic.

Peter Sees Venom In The Mirror - Spider-Man 3

Venom in the mirror Spider-Man 3

Venom fans are still angry about his treatment in Spider-Man 3, and it’s clear from watching the film that Sam Raimi doesn’t quite get the appeal of the villain. He seems more comfortable using Venom as a symbol for Peter’s dark side, who becomes obsessed with the power and confidence the Symbiote costume grants him.

This is best seen in a brief deleted clip where Peter is dressing in front of a mirror and gets a brief flash of Venom screaming. It’s a startling jump scare, made creepier by the practical costume used to pull off the shot, instead of the mainly CGI Venom seen elsewhere in the movie.

It’s also a quick nod to Raimi’s horror roots, so it’s a shame it didn’t make the cut.

Stan Lee Sells "X-Men" Glasses - Spider-Man

It just wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without a Stan Lee cameo, and no matter how cheesy the role might be, he never fails to make fans smile. His wordless role in the original Spider-Man is fairly brief, though, where he reacts to an explosion and takes a child to safety.

There was a little more to his part in the original cut, revealing Lee as a street vendor trying to sell Peter sunglasses. He tells Peter they’re the same glasses worn by the X-Men, but he’s not interested.

It’s unknown why this brief snippet was removed, but it’s possible that it just didn’t work with the pacing of the sequence. Maybe Sony didn’t feel like giving a shout out to a rival comic book franchise either.

The Mary Jane Scenes - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Shailene Woodley in Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Mary Jane

Without a doubt, the biggest casualty of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cutting room floor is the character of Mary Jane. The movie was going to introduce the character with a few scenes in the sequel, setting her up as Peter’s future love interest.

Ultimately, the movie was already overloaded with subplots, so it was decided that the story had to focus on the relationship between Peter and Gwen Stacy. This makes sense from a storytelling point of view, but it must have been hard for actress Shailene Woodley, who had completed work on the movie when the announcement was made.

Strangely, Mary Jane’s deleted scenes weren’t made available on Blu-ray, and have yet to surface. Given the speed that Sony is moving away from The Amazing Spider-Man movies, they’re unlikely to resurface anytime soon.

Alternate Harry Forgiveness Scene - Spider-Man 3

Harry Osborn Scarred Spiderman 3

While many of the subplots in Spider-Man 3 don’t quite work – such as Peter’s romancing of Gwen Stacy and the reveal that Flint Marko killed Uncle Ben – Harry Osborn’s turn to the dark side is a lot of fun. James Franco is clearly having a ball, and his switch from Peter’s best friend to his enemy gives this story plenty of depth.

A lot of this good work is undone when Harry learns that Peter didn’t kill his father, with the family butler revealing Norman’s wounds were self-inflicted. Why the butler didn’t reveal this key information before is never explained, and it’s a lazy retcon to explain why Harry helps Spider-Man in the finale.

A superior alternative was shot, showing Harry looking at a fractured picture of himself, Peter, and Mary Jane, and deciding to redeem himself by saving his old friends; no magic butler required.

Dr. Connors Visits His Son - The Amazing Spider-Man

Dr Connors visits son in the amazing spider-man

The Lizard is the most disappointing villain of The Amazing Spider-Man era, because despite strong work by actor Rhys Ifans and the character’s ties to Peter, his design is weak and his evil plot – turning the city into Lizard people – just plain sucks.

Dr. Connors originally had more screentime too, fleshing out his character and exploring his descent into madness. His strongest deleted scene found Connors visiting his son, explaining that he had to go away for awhile. In a somewhat creepy speech, he also explains he was wrong to tell his son not to stand up to bullies.

This scene is probably Ifans' best work, and it paints a clear picture of Connors deteriorating mental state, but unfortunately, it’s another scene that was sacrificed to tighten up the runtime.

Peter and Liz Kiss At The Dance - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Laura Harrier as Liz Allan in Spider-Man Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming showed that being a superhero can really mess up your social life, since Peter is always too busy saving the city to be a normal teenager. Despite numerous attempts to romance his love interest Liz Allen throughout the story, something always gets in the way.

Even when he manages to take her to the Homecoming dance in the final act, he has to abandon her to chase The Vulture. According to actress Laura Harrier, however, several kissing scenes were filmed at different points throughout the story, including one between them at the dance.

Ultimately, none of these moments were used. This was probably a wise choice, since it makes their non-starting relationship sadder and underlines Peter’s full commitment to being a hero.

Peter Learns Of Oscorp Surveillance - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Dane DeHaan in Amazing Spider-Man 2

The various trailers and TV spots for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 revealed a wealth of scenes that didn’t make the edit, including Harry’s Oscorp attack and a longer speech by a dying Norman Osborn.

Peter’s DNA is an important subplot in the movie, with Harry trying – and failing – to convince Spidey to hand over a sample to save his life. This story was even more prominent in the original cut, with an extended scene where Peter visits Harry at Oscorp and learns that he and his family was under surveillance by the company for years.

This shows Norman had a special interest in Peter following Richard Parker’s death, possibly suspecting that his blood held the key to his research. This narrative thread was trimmed in the final cut, possibly for a future movie to pick up on.

J Jonah Tries On Spidey's Costume - Spider-Man 2

JK Simmons dressed as Spider-Man

Scenes get removed for various reasons; to tighten up the pace, to remove a redundant subplot, or maybe to take out a gag that doesn’t quite land. Even if a scene works well on its own, sometimes it just doesn’t gel with the rest of the movie.

That’s probably why the utterly amazing scene where J. Jonah Jameson dons Spider-Man’s costume and starts shooting fakes webs around his office was taken out. It’s a brief, hilarious scene in its own right – and more J.K. Simmons is always a plus – but it’s a little too goofy to be in the actual movie.

The scene at least proves that despite J Jonah’s supposed hatred of Spidey, deep down, he kind of wishes he could be like him.

Peter Builds Web-Shooters - Spider-Man

Spider-Man 2002 deleted webshooters scene

James Cameron first introduced the concept of Peter developing organic web-shooters as a result of his spider bite, an idea that was kept for Sam Raimi’s version. This change proved to be controversial among the fanbase, as young genius Peter built his own web-shooters in the comic.

There’s evidence that the studio predicted this backlash, because an early sizzle reel includes a brief shot of Peter wearing self-built web-shooters. The studio probably shot this additional material just in case the outcry against the organic approach became too much, giving them the option to add a few inserts into the movie with the self-built shooters instead.

In the end, they stuck with the organic concept, and to date, no further footage of this alternate approach has been released.

Richard Parker Alternate Ending - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Richard Parker Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man series didn’t feature anybody spouting the iconic phrase “With great power comes great responsibility,” despite this saying being a mantra for the character. It turns out that the original ending for the second installment featured this line being spoken by a surprise character.

While Peter mourns for Gwen Stacy in the final act, his supposedly dead father Richard shows up at her grave. The two have an emotional heart to heart, with Richard explaining why he had to vanish, and how he tried to protect Peter from his research. It ends with him dropping the iconic line about responsibility, which spurs Peter to get web slinging again.

Richard Parker’s survival from the opening plane crash is suspect, but this scene was a much stronger ending for the story, and it’s a shame the filmmakers decided not to keep it.

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What other deleted Spidey scenes are floating around out there? Let us know in the comments.