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The Marvel brand has been a dominant force in entertainment for years, and currently, they are operating as the biggest franchise in the world. They can't seem to miss at this point, and while we know a bit about what's coming in Phase Four, we can assure you that things are going to get wilder than people think.
Spider-Man is Marvel's cornerstone hero, and his movies have made billions. Long before he took the big screen for the first time, our friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man was nearly brought to life by none other than James Cameron.
Let's take a look at what could have been!
Spider-Man Has Had Some Incredible Movies
Spider-Man has long been one of the most iconic heroes in print, and once he made his way to the big screen, there was simply no stopping him from taking over there, as well. It all started during the 2000s, and it has developed into 20 years of amazing big screen moments.
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was released at the beginning of the superhero movie craze that swept the new millennium, and it, along with X-Men, showed casual audiences that superhero movies could be genuinely amazing.
Raimi and actor Tobey Maguire unleashed a trilogy of films before turning the reins over to Andrew Garfield and his Amazing Spider-Man movies, which are gaining a ton of retrospective love from fans.
After two sets of films, fans weren't sure what was next for Spidey, but Tom Holland would take over the role and enter the MCU, ushering in a new era for the webslinger. Just last year, Spider-Man: No Way Home became Holland's trilogy picture, and it was a spectacle that became a global phenomenon.
Spider-Man's history on the silver screen is truly impressive, but before Sam Raimi kicked it off, the legendary James Cameron was intent on making his own Spider-Man picture.
James Cameron Wanted To Make A Spider-Man Movie With Leonardo DiCaprio
During the 1990s, James Cameron was interested in making a Spider-Man movie, and he was intent on making it a grittier film.
"I wanted to make something that had a kind of gritty reality to it. Superheroes in general always came off as kind of fanciful to me, and I wanted to do something that would have been more in the vein of Terminator and Aliens, that you buy into the reality right away," he said.
"I wanted it to be: It’s New York. It’s now. A guy gets bitten by a spider. He turns into this kid with these powers and he has this fantasy of being Spider-Man, and he makes this suit and it’s terrible, and then he has to improve the suit, and his big problem is the damn suit. Things like that. I wanted to ground it in reality and ground it in universal human experience. I think it would have been a fun film to make," Cameron added
Cameron's choice to play Spidey? None other than Leonardo DiCaprio!
Believe us when we say that this movie was going to have it all, including an insanely talented cast to bring it to life.
Why Didn't DiCaprio's 'Spider-Man' Work?
Some notable cast members would have included Kevin Spacey as Green Goblin, Nikki Cox as Mary Jane Watson, Bill Paxton as The Burglar, and Michael Douglas as J. Jonah Jameson. Other members of the cast included Katharine Hepburn as May Parker, Michael Biehn as Sandman, Lance Henricksen as Electro, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus.
Many details about the film have emerged online, and even the script treatment can be read by interested parties. Some of they details include the classic spider bite, Spider-Man having natural webs, Uncle Ben's passing, Electro as the main villain, J. Jonah Jameson running a Spider-Man smear campaign, and even Spider-Man dropping an F bomb.
Unfortunately, no studio bit on Cameron's offer.
"All of a sudden it was a free ball,” Cameron said. “I tried to get Fox to buy it, but apparently the rights were a little bit clouded and Sony had some very questionable attachment to the rights and Fox wouldn’t go to bat for it. [Former Fox President] Peter Chernin just wouldn’t go to bat for it. He didn’t want to get into a legal fight over. And I’m like ‘Are you kidding? This thing could be worth, I don’t know, a billion dollars!’ $10 billion later...," Cameron said.
This movie could have been great to see, but Sam Raimi's Spider-Man is ultimately what we got. Not that anyone is complaining about that.