More details about what Vulture would have been like in Sam Raimi’s unmade Spider-Man 4 have been revealed, and they make it an even bigger waste. Spider-Man made his big screen debut in 2002 in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, which explored the title character’s origin story and saw him face his first villain, the Green Goblin (Willlem Dafoe). Spider-Man is credited for redefining the modern superhero genre and the summer blockbuster, and its success made way for two sequels.
Spider-Man 2 saw Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) coming across Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and losing his powers temporarily, and it's regarded as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. However, Spider-Man 3 didn’t repeat the success of its predecessors, and even though it got negative reviews, a fourth movie was greenlit and entered development in 2007. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 4 was officially canceled in 2010, but details about the plot and its characters have been revealed over the years. Among the villains of Spider-Man 4 would have been Vulture, which has now been described as a man who “did a lot of ugly stuff”, and this horrifying version would have been perfect under Raimi’s direction.
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 Could Have Been Really Great
In the book With Great Power (via The Direct), Sean O’Connell shared more details about the version of Vulture that would have been included in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4. According to storyboard artist Jeffrey Henderson, Vulture was a guy working for the government who did “a lot of ugly stuff as a private contractor”, and shared why he earned the name “Vulture”: because once he was done, he “didn’t leave anything but bones behind”. Vulture, then, would have leaned more into horror, which is what Raimi is mostly known for, and would have fitted the darker route that Spider-Man had been going towards, as seen in Spider-Man 3.
Spider-Man 3 was the darkest movie in Raimi’s trilogy, which was fitting as all the characters had grown up and thus were somewhat expected to deal with heavier stuff. Had Spider-Man 4 happened, it most likely would have gone even darker, and the plan for Vulture is proof of this. Raimi could have definitely pulled off a horror-like version of Vulture, making him the most terrifying villain in his Spider-Man trilogy and bringing some of the scariest and perhaps most graphic scenes. Raimi managed to sneak a couple of horror-like scenes in the Spider-Man trilogy, most notably the hospital scene in Spider-Man 2 where Doc Ock slaughters all doctors and nurses – and if Vulture left nothing but bones behind, Spider-Man 4 would have seen a combination of Raimi’s best worlds: superheroes and horror.
Why Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 Never Happened
As mentioned above, Spider-Man 4 entered development in 2007, and it went through various rewrites between 2007 and 2009. In late 2009, John Malkovich was in talks to play Vulture and Anne Hathaway to play Felicia Hardy, but in January 2010, Sony announced that the project had been canceled as Raimi dropped out. Raimi left as he wasn’t sure he could meet the planned May 2011 release date without some creative sacrifices, and even after all the rewrites, he still hated the script. Tobey Maguire’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home reignited interest in Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 being made, but Raimi has already said he has no plans on making it happen, so Maguire’s Spidey facing a ruthless and terrifying Vulture will only live in the imagination of the audience.