Back in August 2006 — nearly a year ago now, we had our first insight into what lies in wait for the future of both Marvel films and the Spider-man franchise. In an interview with MTV, Marvel producer Kevin Feige had this to say,
“There will be many more Spider-Man films to come,” he promised. “We already have stacks of ideas for the next one because of the wealth of stories in the comics. We could be making Spider-Man movies for the next 20 years, based on the 50 years of Spider-Man history we have.”
That doesn’t necessarily guarantee, however, that Tobey Maguire will continue as the man under the mask.
“When you’re concentrating on one movie at a time, there’s a beginning and a middle and an end to that process,” Feige reasoned. “We’ve been topping each one as they go, [and if that happens again], that’s the time for those discussions.”
And when it comes to Tobey Maguire’s involvement, he denied rumors that he would not be participating and instead had this to say (via Yahoo Movies),
“I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if… the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that’s worth making, then I’m up for it.”
In an article at SciFi.com these sentiments were uttered again,
“Well, it’s possible that we make another movie,” Maguire said in an interview. “It all depends on if there’s a story worth telling. I feel very proud of the three movies that we’ve made. I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if they come up with a good movie, and the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that’s worth making, then I’m up for it.”
The article continues, stating that co-star Kirsten Dunst would also be interested in reprising her role as Mary Jane Watson;
“There’s an openness at the end [of Spider-Man 3], which I like, but … I feel like this is a trilogy unto itself,” she said. “And I think if we venture into a fourth, it will be some time from now and in a new way. Because I don’t think Sam can do that: continuing on this same course. I think he needs to venture as an artist and do other things; otherwise, none of us will have anything good to bring to the fourth. So I think we all need to venture out a little bit, and then maybe we’ll come back together one day and do another one.”
This brings us very nicely to the projected involvement of Spider-man director Sam Raimi. In April 2007 he announced that Sony had plans to produce another 3 Spider-man films, whether he shall direct these is at the moment unknown. Raimi had this to say in an Empire interview in July this year,
“I want to help contribute to the production,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll just be a producer on it but if I can work with the writer in such a way so that directing would be right for me, I don’t know. We’ve had our first meeting on Spider-Man 4 and we’re looking for the writer.”
As for who is currently working on the illustrious project, in January 2007 a deal with screenwriter David Koepp was sought, though it seems as of July a new writer may be involved.