Before the current explosion of superhero movies, two franchises really set the world on fire when it comes to comic book adaptations. Those were Bryan Singer's "X-Men" movies and Sami Raimi and his "Spider-Man" movies. One of the stars those "Spider-Man" movies was Kirsten Dunst, who played Mary Jane Watson. Dunst spoke to Variety about those movies and what she had hoped would have been the fourth movie in the series.
What killed Sam Raimi's Spider-Man?
Sam Raimi brought the first "Spider-Man" movie to theaters when superhero movies were still in their infancy. However, he brought a joy and excitement to the movie that made it feel like a comic book movie, and it was a huge success. Thanks to the success of that movie, Raimi was able to make "Spider-Man 2," which is considered one of the best comic book movies ever made. That movie allowed Raimi to add a lot of his personal touches to the movie and it paid off.
However, things changed with "Spider-Man 3." Despite his success with the first two movies, Sony wanted to have a strong hand in what Sam Raimi added to the third movie.
Raimi wanted to focus on Sandman, but Sony demanded that he add Venom to the movie. It didn't work well, and Raimi shortchanged Venom, causing "Spider-Man 3" to be the first failure since he took over the franchise.
Kirsten Dunst talks "Spider-Man."
Kirsten Dunst said that she was disappointed not to see another Spider-Man movie from Sam Raimi after that disappointing third movie. Dunst said that she really wanted to be in the movie badly and said that she wishes they could have made the fourth movie. In an ironic twist, Raimi wanted to use The Vulture as the villain, but Sony said fans wouldn't want to see that. The Vulture is the villain in the upcoming "Spider-Man: Homecoming" by Marvel.
Sam Raimi said the only reason that a fourth Spider-Man movie couldn't get made was because of scheduling issues and he just couldn't make the deadline because he couldn't get the story to work the way Sony wanted it.
Raimi said he didn't want to make a movie that was less than great so he stepped away and chose not to make the movie.
Sam Raimi also said that he knew that Sony wanted to reboot the entire "Spider-Man" franchise, so he told them to go ahead and reboot it. Raimi also said that Sony thanked him for not wasting their money and being honest. As for Kirsten Dunst, she has a favorite of the movies as she said "everyone likes" the Spider-Man movies she was in and it's better to be in the first films than the new movies.