Sam Raimi has been talking a lot of Spider-Man 4 with MTV lately. Recently, they discussed the topic everyone wants to know about: villains. As it has always been, there is still no idea who the villain will be, but it appears that they are leaning toward a few prospects. Raimi was also asked by MTV what the chances are that he would return to do Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6, which are both being written by James Vanderbilt at the moment.
When asked about who may be in the mix for the villains, Raimi simply replied “I’m not allowed to say at this point,” which could mean anything, really. We all know that the most expected one would be the Lizard, which they’ve set up throughout the franchise, but there’s numerous other faces it could be — both liked and not-so-liked by fans. Some seem to think the best route would be for Carnage to be the villain, and have that carry over to the Venom spinoff movie that’s planned, but considering Venom is supposed to be a clean slate spinoff, it’d be much better if Carnage was saved for that project alone.
Raimi did have insight on how they’re going about choosing the perfect villain to match Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) next journey. Here’s what the director said:
What we’re trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome. Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain””and we’re trying this right now; we’re trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.
Most were fairly certain that after this fourth installment, most of the Spider-Man cast and crew would dissipate and new blood would be brought in, but to be fair, this has been the assumption since Spider-Man 2. While it may be likely that this is the last ride for the team, Raimi doesn’t close the door on his return to the fifth and sixth movies.
Every time I make one of the ‘Spider-Man’ movies, I have to ask myself, is the character still intriguing to me? Do I love the character? Am I dying to tell the next story of Peter Parker and Spider-Man?
And so far the answer has been yes.
If ever I feel sated, like I’ve got no more to say or I’m not really super-excited about it, because I know I’ll also love it, but I’ve got to be super-excited about it. If I can’t reach that level of commitment and excitement, I think then there’d be somebody else better to do justice to the story.
You have to ask me in two-and-half years,
This all really hangs on this next chapter, if you ask I. If he makes this valiant comeback and presents us with yet another Spider-Man 3, it won’t matter how much he wants to come back and do more, the fans will scream for another name to take over.
I’m hoping for Bruce Campbell as the villain, otherwise, I don’t really see how a spidey 4 can be any good.
Comment by Sierra — October 17, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Bruce Campbell as a villain would be great but I don’t think his absence would ruin the film. Still, he deserves some A-list limelight.
Comment by Joseph — October 17, 2009 @ 2:02 pm