Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Shares Some DNA With A Scene From Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 [Exclusive]
There are few unmade movies in history that make us wonder what could have been quite like Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 4." The filmmaker had intended to reunite with Tobey Maguire one more time following the disappointment of "Spider-Man 3." In the end, creative differences got in the way and Sony went with a reboot, giving us "The Amazing Spider-Man" with Andrew Garfield in 2012.
Interestingly though, one of the greatest "Spider-Man" movies ever made actually shares a little bit of DNA with Raimi's unrealized vision. I recently spoke with concept artist Jeff Henderson, who worked on "Spider-Man 4" before it was scrapped. During our conversation, Henderson revealed that there was a scene being cooked up for Raimi's film that actually mirrors a key scene from 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse."
The scene in question takes place after Peter Parker dies, and we see Mary Jane Watson delivering an emotional speech to New York City, making for sort of a highly public funeral. As Henderson tells it, this very much mirrored what Raimi had planned for his unmade sequel.
"I'll preface this, I don't know if this was deliberate or if this was by design. But I remember when [my fiancée] Jen and I saw the screening 'Into the Spider-Verse,' which I think is one of the greatest animated pieces of work ever made, the way they handled Peter's funeral and Mary Jane speaking at his funeral and the impact it had on New York, that sequence in 'Into the Spider-Verse' is very similar to how he wanted to end 'Spider-Man 4.'"
A good idea comes full circle
The implication, it seems, is that Raimi might have been planning to kill Spider-Man in his movie, while giving Maguire's version of the character a very emotional goodbye. That's not explicitly stated by Henderson, but it's heavily suggested. One key thing is that Henderson wanted to make it clear that he doesn't feel anyone ripped anything off. This is not a case of the "Into the Spider-Verse" filmmakers lifting an idea. It's just about that good idea coming full circle in another film a decade later.
"I'm not suggesting that anybody ripped it off or anything. But I just mean that Sam set up a lot of stuff. That's certainly one of the ways that I think it could have played out by design. For any writer who loved Spider-Man, I think that was definitely on the table the whole time. But I actually nudged Jen when we were watching. I was like, 'Oh my God, it's just the thing in Spider-Man 4.' But at the end of the day, there were a lot of great ideas. There were a lot of amazing people working on it."
Given what little we know of "Spider-Man 4," any information comes at a premium. We know Vulture would have been the villain. We also know, thanks to Henderson, that the Daily Bugle might have been taken over by the Vulture's daughter. And, maybe, just maybe, it would have had one heck of an emotional ending. But if that ending had come to pass, we might never have gotten to a place where "Spider-Man: No Way Home" could exist. Not to mention "Into the Spider-Verse." We may always wonder what could have been, but what we got was pretty damn good.