Thanks to the mixed reviews of Spider-man 3, the proposed fourth film in Sam Raimi’s franchise never came to fruition. However, artist Jeffrey Henderson had worked on some initial storyboard designs, which indicate Raimi had good friend and long time collaborator Bruce Campbell in mind to play the villain Mysterio. Henderson recently posted the designs on his site, which mostly feature the Vulture, but include Campbell as Mysterio as well. He also posted the following statement:
“Ahhh, Spider-Man 4. Of all the projects I’ve worked on, I get asked about this more often than anything else. I hope that one day I can, (or somebody can), finally tell the whole story of Sam Raimi‘s ‘abandoned’ fourth Spider-Man movie. Until then, out of respect for Sam, (and fear that he’d send Bruce Campbell to come after me with a chainsaw…), and everyone that worked on, or contributed to, this project, let me just say this: It would’ve been one absolutely kick ass movie. Seriously. We were working on some crazy- cool stuff, because everyone, from top to bottom, felt that Spidey 3 was a bit of a ‘missed opportunity’, and we all really wanted to help Sam take SM4 to another level so he could end the series on a high note. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, but I did get to spend a few years working on OZ, The Great and Powerful, which was just amazing… but that’s a whole ‘nother post. Anyway, Sam is almost superstitious about releasing any storyboards for anything, (go back and look at every “The Art Of” book for every movie he’s ever done… you know what’s not gonna be there? Anywhere? That’s right: storyboards), I don’t really know why- but that’s just how he feels about it. So, having said that, here are some ‘boards I can share, (without pissing Sam off), from the mysterious Spider-Man 4.”
Having Bruce as a main antagonist (as opposed to his cameos in the first three) in a huge blockbuster would have been amazing, but it would have changed the trajectory in his career, which means we likely would have never gotten the greatest show on television, Ash vs Evil Dead.
