Sam Raimi

Every single Sony live-action Spider-Man film — including the adventures of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland — are returning to movie theaters this spring. That includes eight titles spanning 20 years of comic-book movie history. All of these Sp...

An unused script for ‘Spider-Man 2’ would have made a great film.

Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' could have been a trilogy!

The director made his first comments about the project this week.

After delivering two great Spider-Man films back-to-back (and almost singlehandedly launching a new era of superhero franchises), Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 left fans and critics feeling a bit disappointed. With one too many villains, that famous Peter Parker dance sequence (which I actually like!) and reports of Sony’s meddling, Raimi’s third film in the series ultimately proved to be his last when he abandoned plans for Spider-Man 4 back in 2010 — leaving us wondering what his fourth film might have looked like. Thankfully, we don’t have to wonder (much) anymore.

Oh what a different 18 months makes. A year ago, last fall Spider-Man fans were facing an entire universe of Spidey movies they didn’t particularly want; a third Amazing Spider-Man about the continuing and not-particularly-exciting adventures of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker, plus spinoff movies for Venom and the Sinister Six. Things got so bad for Spider-Man that when rumors began circulating that Sony was considering an Aunt May movie, Sony had to publicly dismiss those rumors as “silly” with “no validity whatsoever” because people thought that the company that made Amazing Spider-Man 2 might actually be dumb enough to make an Aunt May movie.

It’s 2003. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man has just become the biggest movie of the year, grossing over $400 million (at the time, one of only four films to achieve that feat). Maguire had just wrapped filming on Seabiscuit, a prestige film that would go on to earn six Oscar nominations including Best Picture...

It’s still a bit strange that we’re getting a third Spider-Man franchise already — the second reboot in three years, and the second reboot since Sam Raimi kicked off the franchise with 2002's Spider-Man. Following Marvel and Sony’s highly-anticipated deal to collaborate on the new reboot of the character, Raimi himself is weighing in with his thoughts on the deal and his faith in the future of Spidey.

Raimi is echoing what most critics and fans have been telling him for the last seven years. ‘Spider-Man 3’ had the lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating of any film in the franchise (until this year’s ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’), and it made less money in the U.S. than either of its predecessors. For many, it represents not only the lowest-point of the Spider-Man series, but for comic-book movies as a whole; the conclusion of Raimi’s Spider-trilogy routinely ranks among the worst superhero movies ever. (See: this, and this, and this, and this, and this.) No wonder Spidey looks so sad on the ‘Spider-Man 3’ teaser poster; everyone hates his movie.

Although Sam Raimi’s first two ‘Spider-Man’ films were mostly critically-acclaimed and loved by fans, most look back upon his ‘Spider-Man 3' with a mixture of confusion, disdain, and sadness—mostly due to a plot that feels less focused and Topher Grace’s hilariously, cartoonishly bad performance as Eddie Brock, aka Venom. But don’t feel too bad, you guys, because Raimi is admitting that he’s not a fan of ‘Spider-Man 3,’ either.