Summary
- Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire was canceled in 2010, and Anne Hathaway was rumored to play Black Cat.
- Hathaway revealed that she was cast for the role but didn’t progress beyond the audition.
- The future of Spider-Man in the MCU and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe remains uncertain, but new projects are in the works.
The world of movies is full of “what if” scenarios and missed opportunities. One of those was the cancelation of Sam Raimi’s fourth Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire as Marvel’s web-slinger. Despite Spider-Man 3 getting some criticism, the movie continued to prove that Spider-Man is one of the most profitable and bankable superheroes out there, and Spider-Man 4 began development in 2007. Anne Hathaway was rumored to be playing Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in the sequel, something the actress has addressed in a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Spider-Man 4 was not meant to be, and in 2010 was officially scrapped by Sony pictures. Of course, at this time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just getting started, and the idea of Spider-Man’s future lying within a huge sprawling saga was still to be realized, so instead of continuing Maguire’s Spider-Man journey, Andrew Garfield stepped into the role in a complete reboot in 2012. However, fans have always wanted to know more about what could have been in Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, and the director revealed soon after that Hathaway had been cast in the movie before it was canceled.
Speaking about the role that could have been, Hathaway has now explained that although she was cast in the role, the production did not make it much further beyond that point. She said:
“I did not get into costume and did not read a script past the audition sides. I got the part and, yeah, it just… I think that’s probably more the producers’ story to tell than mine should they ever decided to tell it.”
Anne Hathaway is currently starring alongside Thomasin McKenzie in the psychological thriller Eileen.
Could Tobey Maguire Now Return for His Own Spider-Man 4?
Spider-Man: No Way Home opened up the multiverse in a whole new way, and revived calls for Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to be given their own new live-action Spider-Man projects. While this has been rumored in the last couple of years, along with the possible return of both stars for Avengers: Secret Wars, it seems less and less likely considering other things in play right now.
In the past, Sam Raimi has shared details about what his fourth Spider-Man movie could have looked like. From Bruce Campbell playing Mysterio, to the chance of seeing Kraven the Hunter on screen for the first time, there were so many possible ways for Spider-Man 4 to go that it is impossible to know whether the film would have been a hit, or would have continued the critical decline that began with Spider-Man 3. Perhaps in the long run, the way things panned out was for the best, with Maguire being allowed to make a triumphant return in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Whatever the future now holds for the Spider-Man branch of the MCU, or for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, we are never too far away from another iteration of the character. The next projects featuring the character are the animated MCU series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (formerly known as Spider-Man: Freshman Year), coming to Disney+ in 2024, and Beyond the Spider-Verse, which is currently being rescheduled following recent strike delays.
