Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes in the world, across any franchise.
In fact, by some metrics (like total comic book sales) skinny, little Peter Parker can stand toe-to-toe with the Batmans and the Supermans of the world when it comes to overall popularity, if not outright beat them.
And Spider-Man has maintained his immense popularity despite a less-than-stellar track record at the box office.
The generally well-received Tom Holland trilogy still features a middling second movie.
And the less said about the smattering of Sony “Spider-Man” films that don’t actually feature Spidey, the better.
Before that, the “Amazing Spider-Man” (starring the underrated Andrew Garfield) movies came and went with a pair of critical and commercial disappointments, though this writer still enjoyed them.
And before that in 2002, Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi captured the hearts and minds of young comic book fans with an incredible interpretation of Spider-Man. The 2004 sequel to that first smash hit was an even bigger success and the sky appeared to be the limit for Spider-Man.
That is until the disastrous third Raimi-Maguire outing that was widely panned by both movie critics critics (the film simply wasn’t well made, and emo Tobey Maguire is a bad use of the actor’s range) and fans of the source material (the film carelessly retconned the death of Spider-Man’s beloved Uncle Ben).
But the general appreciation of those first two early aughts films — and perhaps also due to the unsatisfying conclusion to the trilogy — has sustained talks of a fourth Raimi-Maguire Spider-Man outing for years now, despite the mantle of Spidey having passed to Garfield and Holland.
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Those rumors were obviously kicked into overdrive when Holland’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” movie came out in 2021.
That film, thanks to some multiversal hijinks, saw both Spider-Men portrayed by Garfield and Maguire transported to the same universe Holland’s Spider-Man was in. Mild spoiler alert: The three unite to save the day, but the film largely left the futures of the alternate Spider-Men murky.
Given that uncertain outlook, many fans, perhaps over optimistically, saw that as a glimmer of hope that Raimi and Maguire may reunite for one final outing to give Maguire’s Spider-Man the send-off he deserved.
(Ironically, the one Spider-Man who most needs a proper conclusion is Garfield’s, given that his second and final film ended with a number of unfinished narrative strands.)
Those rumors were finally publicly addressed by Raimi during an interview published April 1 by CBR (the news website formerly known as Comic Book Resources). And no it doesn’t appear to be an April Fools prank.
“I haven’t heard about that yet”: Sam Raimi tells CBR’s @djkevlar that fans shouldn’t take those Spider-Man 4/Tobey Maguire rumors too seriously. pic.twitter.com/qbvrzKmAt0
— CBR (@CBR) April 1, 2024
Please note the seemingly deliberate and careful use of the word “yet.”
“Well, I haven’t heard about [the rumors] yet,” Raimi told the outlet. “I did read that, but I’m not actually working on it yet.
“I mean, Marvel and Columbia are so successful with current Spider-Man [films], and the track there, and I don’t know that they’re going to go back to me, and say, ‘Well, folks, we can also tell that story!’ I’m not sure, but I love all the new Spider-Man movies.
“I loved ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ It was really, super powerful seeing Tobey again in it.”
Notice that Raimi never actually denied being involved with a fourth Maguire Spider-Man movie. If anything, his use of “yet” makes it sound more a matter of when, and not if, Tobey Maguire’s more grizzled Peter Parker will get his own feature-length film again.
But for fans of the New York webslinger, the big takeaway from Raimi’s comments is straightforward: A fourth Tobey Maguire is not in the works … yet.
