Did you like Spider-Man 3? I didn’t. Sadly, many fans of the Spider-Man franchise were let down by the third installment of the series but don’t fret! We just may get a return to form with Spider-Man 4.

In an interview with Empire for this May's issue, Raimi openly talked about some of the problems with Spider-Man 3 and confirmed some rumors we all heard about two summers ago when the movie was released.

"They really gave me a tremendous amount of control on the first two films, actually. But then there were different opinions on the third film and I didn't really have creative control, so to speak."

There were rumblings that Raimi wasn’t allowed to truly do his own story and that producers forced him to include the popular Venom character as one of the villains in the story. When asked about that, Raimi responded:

"I don't even want to comment on Venom, because I know he's a great character and all the fans love him. I never want to say anything bad about a much-beloved character because usually it turns out that I'm the one that doesn't understand what makes it great."

It seems that the image above is more meaningful than at first glace...

More questions were thrown at the director about the issues surrounding Spider-Man 3 and the at-the-time Marvel head honcho Avi Arad’s rumored insistence on Venom’s inclusion, but Raimi responded professionally and didn’t name names or play the blame game in his answers.

"The best way for me to move forward on films, I realize...and this was a lesson I had to learn for myself...is that I've gotta be the singular voice that makes the creative choices on the film.”

It sounds promising that the next movie will return to the quality we’ve come to expect from the first two films in the franchise. I’m glad that Raimi is back in the captain’s chair (for real this time) and that Tobey will be back as Peter Parker. We also know that Raimi really wants Kirsten Dunst back as Mary Jane but no deal has been made on that front as of yet.

Morbius a villain in Spider-Man 4

As for the villains of the next Spidey film; we know Raimi has an interest in Morbius and they’ve spent quite a bit of effort in developing The Lizard. So, we could be seeing those two in the story. I like those choices as villains as they go hand in hand as a pairing in the Spider-Man comics and both have very similar origins.

I definitely prefer that pairing to the recently rumored (originating from a fan site) Electro and Carnage combo which I think would be a poor decision. They need to avoid Carnage if they want to keep the suspension of belief and have a more realistic (as realistic as it can be for a superhero flick) movie experience.

Or at least, save Carnage for the fifth film.

What do you think?

Spider-Man 4 is set to open in theaters May 6, 2011.

Source: The Geek Files