It’s been over eight years since Spider-Man 3 hit theaters, and the movie is still considered by many to be one of the lesser entries in the Web-Slinger’s cinematic history. After the acclaim its predecessors earned, Spider-Man 3 was not nearly as well-received, with criticism aimed at it being too crowded with villains and poor storytelling. Now director Sam Raimi is taking responsibility for how the final product turned out.
While speaking with The Week, Raimi admitted that he messed up on Spider-Man 3, but also stated he would like another chance at directing the Wall-Crawler. As Raimi put it:
I messed up on the third one. I think they're so complete now, Marvel. They probably don't need me anymore. But if they needed me? I'd love to. It's great to be wanted.
To be fair, Spider-Man 3’s less-than-stellar reputation isn’t entirely Rami’s fault. Sony shares some of the blame for their notes on what they wanted to see, like shoehorning in Venom even though Raimi didn’t want to. Blame game aside, Spider-Man 3 definitely isn’t one of the worst superhero movies that’s ever been made (it’s nowhere near Batman & Robin levels), but it’s clear that it wasn’t the best it could have been. Raimi also admitted he hasn’t kept on top of Spider-Man’s hectic movie history, though he did see the reboots starring Andrew Garfield.
Following Spider-Man 3’s release, Raimi was planning to direct Spider-Man 4, which would have featured John Malkovich as The Vulture and Anne Hathaway as Black Cat. However, he left the project after realizing he couldn’t both make their intended release date and churn out a good product. The web-swinging hero was then rebooted in 2012 with The Amazing Spider-Man, and Sony planned on building a Spider-Man cinematic universe following The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which would have included spinoffs Sinister Six and Venom. Unfortunately for them, the sequel fared badly at the box office, and these plans were scrapped. Marvel and Sony are now working together to bring the hero into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his solo franchise is now in the hands of Cop Car’s Jon Watts.
While the chances of Raimi ever returning to the world of Spider-Man are near zero, he has plenty of other projects to keep him occupied, including executive producing the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which premieres this Saturday. Meanwhile, you can see Tom Holland’s Spider make his MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War on May 6, 2016, followed by his solo movie on July 28, 2017.
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