Sam Raimi Downplays Spider-Man 4 Rumors With Tobey Maguire

Rumors always seem to be swirling on social media that Sam Raimi is going to reunite with Tobey Maguire and direct a fourth “Spider-Man” movie. The duo jump-started a blockbuster age for comic book movies with 2002’s “Spider-Man” and delivered the genre one of its most acclaimed entries with 2004’s “Spider-Man 2.” Although 2007’s “Spider-Man 3” wasn’t a hit with critics, it still pulled in $895 million worldwide to become Raimi and Maguire’s biggest entry.

There was a time when Raimi was developing a “Spider-Man 4” at Sony, with Tobey Maguire back in the title role. The project was ultimately scrapped in favor of rebooting the web-slinger on the big screen with Andrew Garfield. Ever since Maguire returned to his Spider-Man role in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” comic book movie fans have been clamoring for a proper “Spider-Man 4” from Raimi and his star.

“Well, I haven’t heard about that yet,” Raimi recently told CBR at WonderCon when asked about rumors of a new “Spider-Man” movie with Maguire. “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’ [movies], 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!’”

Tom Holland is the current Spider-Man at Sony and Marvel, and the studios are developing a fourth movie for his iteration of the superhero. Raimi said that “I love all the new Spider-Man movies. I loved ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ It was really, super powerful seeing Tobey [Maguire] again in it.”

“I haven’t talked to Tobey about [a fourth movie with me], but maybe Marvel has or Columbia Pictures,” Raimi added. “I just worked with Marvel on a movie called ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.’ So, I’m on great terms with them. I’m sure I would hear about it if it was in the works.”

For what it’s worth, all of the major parties involved in the original “Spider-Man” trilogy have expressed an openness to making a fourth movie together.

“I love these films and I love all of the different series,” Maguire told Marvel after the release of “No Way Home.” “If these guys called me and said, ‘Would you show up tonight to hang out and goof around?’ or ‘Would you show up to do this movie or read a scene or do a Spider-Man thing?’ it would be a ‘yes!’ Because why wouldn’t I want to do that?”

Kirsten Dunst, who played Mary Jane Watson in Raimi’s trilogy, recently said in an interview with Marie Claire that “yes” she would make another comic movie “because you get paid a lot of money, and I have two children, and I support my mother.”

Dunst told Variety in 2021 that “I would do it” when asked about playing Mary Jane again. “Why not? That would be fun,” she added. “I’d be old MJ at this point with little Spidey babies.”

Raimi himself told ComicBook after the release of his “Doctor Strange” sequel that “anything is possible” is Marvel given its ongoing multiverse, which would open the door for him to make a fourth “Spider-Man” movie.

“I love Tobey. I love Kirsten Dunst. I think all things are possible,” Raimi said at the time. “I don’t really have a story or a plan. I don’t know if Marvel would be interested in that right now. I don’t know what their thoughts are about that. I haven’t really pursued that. But it sounds beautiful. Even if it wasn’t a ‘Spider-Man’ movie, I’d love to work with Tobey again, in a different role.”

Watch Raimi’s interview with CBR at WonderCon in the video below.