Sam Raimi dropped a few comments about the possibility of a Spider-Man 4 this week in Premiere, and for some reason everyone is taking them to mean that he might stick around to direct Spider-Man 4. Not so.

Here’s what he had to say: “I'm sure they'll keep making Spider-Man pictures, Amy [Pascal, Sony cochairman] told me that she would. I love Spider-Man. And I love working with Kirsten, Tobey, James. I don't know if Thomas and Topher will be around in the next one, but probably Bryce will be. But I have to make sure that when I'm done with this picture I'm really still fascinated with the character. At this moment I'm fascinated with him. Whether or not I will be in six months when the movie's done I couldn't say. And I absolutely would not have anything to do with the picture unless I was hungry to tell the story.”

Does that sound like a director who wants to do another Spider-Man movie? Not to me. In the very first sentence he says “they’ll keep making” them, as if he’s already distanced himself from the production so much that whoever is making Spidey 4 is “those people” and not “us”. He really sounds like a man burnt out on the whole thing. It gets worse.

There’s a good chance that Tobey Maguire may not return for a fourth one as well, and when asked if he could imagine doing it without him he said this: “I’d rather not. No, I couldn’t imagine it.” If he’s even interested in doing Spider-Man 4 at all, which it doesn’t sound like he is, it seems like he’d only do it if Tobey was doing it. And the odds of Tobey doing it really aren’t much better than those of getting Raimi back.

Let’s hope Spider-Man 3 is killer, because afterwards the franchise is being ripped apart from the inside out.