After 14 Years: Spider-Man 4 Villain Shares Untold Stories of Canceled Film!

Nearly two decades after Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 movie was canceled, original Lizard actor Dylan Baker speaks out on the project getting scrapped.

Curt Connors actor Dylan Baker, who starred in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, shares his disappointment about not getting to go through with his Marvel arc in the canceled Spider-Man 4. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe audience is waiting on Tom Holland’s next outing as Peter Parker, new interest has sparked for Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 4 movie to finally come to fruition. Following the celebration of three Spider-Man franchises in Spider-Man: No Way Home, there has been speculation as to whether or not Maguire’s universe could be revisited in his own solo film again.

In a new interview with Comic Book, the Spider-Man star opened up on having to see Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 film get canceled. After having played Dr. Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, Baker expressed that he was let down by the fact that he never got to play the villainous Lizard in Spider-Man 4, sharing the following:

I have to say, when Sam Raimi called me up and said that he was not going to be carried on to direct Spider-Man 4 [I was disappointed] He started to tell me about the script he had written and was ready to do and ready to shoot, but it was not going to be able to be done at the time they wanted it to be done. It was just letting the Lizard come out and see the world and it just killed me. I would have loved to have done that. Luckily, Rhys Ifans was fantastic and I got to go, ‘Very well done,’ while wishing I could have done it.

Everything We Know About Sam Raimi’s Cancelled Spider-Man 4

Following the negative reception of Spider-Man 3 with critics, Raimi was aiming to redeem the franchise with Spider-Man 4, which was envisioned as the start of a potential new sequel trilogy. Spider-Man 4 would have focused on Peter taking on Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. The Vulture, who was going to be played by John Malkovich. Along the way, Spider-Man 4 would have featured other villains from the web-crawler’s rogues’ gallery, with various cameos being considered, including Bruce Campbell as Mysterio.

Another major player who was going to get introduced from the Marvel universe in Spider-Man 4 was Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, played by Anne Hathaway. With most of the Spider-Man trilogy cast set to return, Spider-Man 4 ultimately became a causality due to creative differences between Raimi and Sony Pictures. This is why the studio ended up rebooting the franchise with Mark Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield as a younger version of the hero.

With Raimi’s recent response on Spider-Man 4 not being in the works, following a batch of rumors, it appears that Maguire’s film franchise will remain over for the time being. Even if it is not on the table for the foreseeable future, stranger things have happened in Hollywood, and there could always be a future where Spider-Man 4 somehow ends up happening. But for now, Maguire’s Spider-Man 4 will continue to be one of the many lost superhero projects that never got to see the light of day.