Sony Pictures responded to Marvel fans demanding a Sam Raimi-directed, Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man 4.
In a recent interview, Raimi -- who's helming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness -- addressed the possibility of another Spider-Man project with Maguire. A snippet of that response began making the rounds on social media, and Sony naturally caught wind of the situation. "Well this has been fun for our mentions today," the studio tweeted. "Friendly reminder, we’re just the social team!"
I've come to realize after making Doctor Strange that anything is possible, really anything in the Marvel universe, any team-ups," Raimi said when asked about picking up where the Spider-Man trilogy from the 2000s and Spider-Man: No Way Home left off. "I love Tobey. I love Kirsten Dunst. I think all things are possible. I don't really have a story or a plan. I don't know if Marvel would be interested in that right now. I don't know what their thoughts are about that. I haven't really pursued that. But it sounds beautiful. Even if it wasn't a Spider-Man movie, I'd love to work with Tobey again, in a different role."
Fans have been campaigning for Spider-Man 4 since shortly after the release of No Way Home, which saw Maguire reprise his role as Peter Parker for the first time since 2007's Spider-Man 3. A fourth entry featuring the Vulture as the main villain entered development in 2007, but those plans were scrapped when Raimi departed the project, and the franchise was rebooted in the 201os with The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel, both starring Andrew Garfield. That series would similarly fizzle out, paving the way for the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies under both Sony and Marvel Studios.
"I think about it all the time," Raimi said in 2019 in reference to Spider-Man 4. "It’s hard not to, because each summer another Spider-Man film comes out! So when you have an unborn one, you can’t help but think what might have been. But I try to focus on what will be, and not look into the past."
As for the reason Raimi left Spider-Man 4, he explained in 2013 that "It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn't get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn't get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, 'I don't want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn't make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you've been planning anyway.'"
Spider-Man: No Way Home is available on digital platforms. The movie arrives on Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD April 12.