Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest movie of the Web-Slinger's cinematic career, and it also delivered on one aspect of James Cameron's unmade Spider-Man movie. In No Way Home's multiverse MCU adventure, not one but three Spideys swing into action with the film's multiverse-facilitated team-up of Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parkers. The Spider-Man action does not stop there, with a huge collection Spider-Man villains appearing in No Way Home, to include Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Jamie Foxx's Electro.

Church and Foxx respectively played Sandman and Electro in 2007's Spider-Man 3 and 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but in another reality of the multiverse, they might have made their big-screen debuts much earlier under the direction of James Cameron. Both Sandman and Electro had been Cameron's intended villains for the Spider-Man movie he had been developing in the early '90s. In the end, a number of factors stopped Cameron's adventure with the Wall-Crawler from happening.

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Spider-Man became one of James Cameron's unmade movies through a combination of legal disputes surrounding Cameron's outline and the bankruptcy of both Marvel and attached studios 21st Century Film Corporation and Carolco Pictures. That makes the presence of Sandman and Electro in No Way Home something of a revival of at least one component of Cameron's Spider-Man plans in bringing the two villains together in the same Spider-Man movie, as does Alfred Molina's returning Doc Ock, the villain considered for an earlier version of Cameron's story with Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind. That said, the roles Sandman and Electro play in No Way Home differ massively from what Cameron conceived.

How Different Are No Way Home's Sandman & Electro From Cameron's?

Jamie Foxx As Electro In No Way Home

In contrast to Jamie Foxx's socially awkward Electro, Cameron's Spider-Man story re-imagined him as a small-time criminal turned villainous businessman named Carlton Strand, not Max Dillon, who acquires his electrical powers after a complex accident with lightning. Sandman was also markedly different from his comic book counterpart, being re-named Boyd from Flint Marko and being a henchman in Electro's employ with the two trying to coerce Spidey into joining Electro's criminal empire. Cameron's take on Spider-Man had other elements such as a sex scene between Peter Parker and Mary Jane on the Brooklyn Bridge, while both Micheal Biehn and Leonardo DiCaprio were considered to play Peter at various stages of development, with Biehn also later being intended for Sandman.

Clearly, Cameron's story greatly reworks many elements of the Spider-Man mythos and especially so for the backstories of Sandman and Electro. In both their previous individual films and their roles in No Way Home, Church's Sandman (re-using some Spider-Man 3 shots in his appearance) and Foxx's Electro generally follow their comic book origins and motivations. Cameron's Spider-Man story sounds like a somewhat darker and more adult-oriented take on Peter Parker's origin, going as far as to have Peter drop f-bombs on Electro.

In the end, it is still fun to entertain the idea of what James Cameron's take on Spider-Man could have been, especially with No Way Home's multiversal plot literally opening the door to many different realities and different Spider-Men. Meanwhile, No Way Home ultimately brought Sandman and Electro along for the ride in one of the most crowd-pleasing box office hits of all time. While Sam Raimi eventually directing 2002's Spider-Man ended up being a better outcome over James Cameron's Spider-Man story, the Spider-Man: No Way Home villain brigade still realizes one Cameron Spidey concept with Sandman and Electro joining forces and having Doc Ock also on-board for good measure.

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