‘Send Help’ Director Sam Raimi Snuffs Hopes For ‘Spider-Man 4’, Says It Wouldn’t “Be Right For Me To Go Back”
While the internet has been flush with Spider-Man 4 production rumors following the gangbusters success of No Way Home, original Sony trilogy director Sam Raimi says that should the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever wish to revisit his take on the wall-crawler, they’ll have to do so without his direction.
The Evil Dead visionary confirmed his lack of friendly neighborhood return plans during a recent interview given to ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan.
Their discussion primarily centered on his new horror film Send Help, Raimi was eventually pressed as to what his possible Spider-future may hold, to which he explained that while he has nothing but love for the MCU and believes the franchise is “better than ever”, his versions of Peter Parker and Mary-Jane had long since “gone somewhere else”.
Admitting that he didn’t feel as if it would “be right for me to go back and try and resurrect my version of this story”, the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director said he “had to pass the torch happily” and was ultimately “honored to have” been trusted with the web-slinger’s story:
“Stan Lee’s great character — that a bullpen of writers in New York at Marvel had come up with stories for — he created the character, but so many people contributed, so many artists, that for a brief time I was handed the torch to carry on after 40 years of Spider-Man comics. And then after my three movies, I handed the torch off to someone else. And I think they’ve got to keep running with the storyline and the audience that is now following the torchbearer.”
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Notably, while Raimi has shut down any chance of his helming a Spider-Man 4, his exit does not necessarily negate the possibility of the film being made – and with the MCU’s reputation currently at rock bottom, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Disney or Marvel Studios to try and notch an easy win by leaning hard on nostalgia.
But what it does mean is that any potential revival of Earth-96283 will no longer continue his specific story, as while they may do their best to follow in Raimi’s footsteps, they will inherently lack the director’s specific vision for the web-slinger and his rogue’s gallery.
At present, neither Disney, Sony, or Marvel Studios has made any indication that a continuation of Raimi’s Spider-Man series is currently in the works, with the only ‘Spider-Man 4‘ on the dockets being the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
However, this lack of official movement has done nothing to stymie demand from either fans or Hollywood, with recent months seeing not only The Batman: Part II director expressing regular and vocal interest in penning a Spider-Man 4, but also both Mary-Jane actress Kirsten Dunst and Sandman actor Thomas Haden Church affirming their own respective willingness to reprise their roles.
All in all, what lies in store for Spider-Man’s overall cinematic future will likely become more clear following the premiere of the aforementioned Brand New Day, which is currently set to sling its way into theaters on July 31st.
Meanwhile, Raimi’s latest Send Help will make landfall this Friday, January 30th.
