What Could Have Been: Spider-Man 3

Taking a look at the original version of Spider-Man 3 which would have featured Vulture as the main villain before Sam Raimi was forced to include Venom.

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
0:50 Sandman
1:27 Vulture
2:37 Venom
3:40 Gwen Stacy
4:36 The Original Ending
5:32 Danny Elfman
7:00 Black Suit Spider-Man
7:39 Post Mortem
8:05 Spider-Man 4

Thumbnail art by TauX

#marvel #spiderman #venom

[TheRoomforImprovement]

Avi Arad: The vulture wasn’t a compelling enough villain.
Jon Watts and Michael Keaton: Y’all hear something?

[NemesisSP]

The idea that they couldn't end the film at the iconic church scene where Peter rips off the symbiote and it bonds to Venom and seeing that as unsatisfying is very strange to me, as by all accounts that's the perfect logical endpoint if you're looking to do a cliffhanger ending.

[Noob_Guyk]

If the studio wasn’t stubborn they could’ve ended part one w Peter losing the symbiote setting venom up for 4

[peterparker]

The sandman character was perfect in this film. The scene of him pulling himself together after being created, is absolutely heart wrenching.
The look on his sandy cgi face when he can’t pick up his daughters picture is one of the saddest things, but it also makes you root for him in that moment.

[orlandoruizjr]

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 would be a dream come true.

[mrv]

I always thought that the original idea was for Sandman to be the main villain for Spider-Man 3. Also, at the end of Spider-Man 2, it looked like Harry Osborn would had been the main villain for Spider-Man 3 and become the Green Goblin. I personally would had prefer to have Harry or Sandman be the main villain for Spider-Man 3. Really wish Sony had let Raimi go with his original plans for Spider-Man 3 & 4. I think had they done this and ask Raimi to do Spider-Man 5 & 6, with Venom & Carnage as the main villain for the fifth one and the Lizard for the sixth movie.

[CCEkeke]

I remember that Raimi was going to film Spider Man 4 and 5 back-to-back. Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst were both getting big money to come back. Anne Hathaway was supposed to be Felicia Hardy in the film. I forgot who was cast as the Vulture. But when the film all collapsed and Raimi left the project, Maguire and Dunst walked with Raimi leaving. That same day, Sony immediately announced a Spider-Man reboot to premier in 2012.

[lehah]

RE: Elfman fallout. The fight between Elfman and Raimi was specifically about the fusion reactor demonstration at the beginning. The movie was temp tracked with Chris Young’s music to Hellraiser. Raimi asked Elfman to “get closer” to the temp and Elfman refused, worried it would end up as a legal issue. After Elfman left, Raimi hired Young to do that scene. (Raimi also had John Debney rescore the pizza delivery chase at the beginning and most of the train fight). Elfman has a history of blowing up, considering his fallout with Burton during Batman Returns & Nightmare Before Xmas

[CoreyWE]

Gwen wasn't in the third act because Bryce Dallas Howard was pregnant. She found out after filming the skyscraper scene.

[venom]

I love the idea of having the themes of revenge and forgiveness in Spider-man 3. However, I felt that Venom fit these themes perfectly and that Sandman was not needed. Gwen was also not needed. In my view, the first half of the movie features Harry looking for revenge and Peter getting the black suit. The second half would be Spider-man facing Venom. Being a massive fan of the character, Venom obviously didn't get much development or screen time he deserved. With that being said, I love Spider-man 3. It's a flawed movie, sure, but it's no where near a bad film. In fact, I think it's pretty damn good.

[Adrie]

That sequence has always been my favorite since 2007, it's perfect

[daddy_]

Raimi should have threatened to walk if there was more studio interference.

[connordougherty]

I’d love to see a Spiderman 4 but I think it should have new villains we havnt seen yet; but maybe make some nods to villains he has fought off screen like vulture, lizard ect. And maybe Otto, Connors and Flint are there to help Peter after the events of No Way Home. Also by Connors I don’t mean the one from Amazing Spiderman.

[tobyclarkthomson]

These bullets and rum videos have been excellent, this channel is definitely going to the top soon.

[Chaos-Zakai]

I've heard in the past that Sam Raimi didn't really like Venom as a character because he didn't see anything redeemable about them. Both Green Goblin and Doc Ock had slight face turns near the end of their movies. Norman saying "Don't tell Harry." and Otto drowning his mini-sun shortly before they died.
Another thing that made Venom disappointing in 3 was the constant pealing back the Venom face whenever he talked. I know Sam Raimi is a director who likes seeing his actor's faces but fans came in wanting a scary monster and that's not what we got. Weird because fans were excited at the thought of Venom being treated like an Evil Dead monster. Evil Dead being the series of horror movies Sam Raimi was most known for before working on the Spider-Man films.
As for adapting the black suit story, it's difficult to use Venom without telling the black suit saga first. Pretty much forcing Venom into only being in the third act. What I might have done would have the climax of the film take place either at or near the church so Peter could use the church bells to force the symbiote off of him bust out an older beat-up spare suit and finish the fight with whoever. Then in a post-credit scene, we would see the symbiote find Eddie Brock and get a tease of Venom who would then be the main villain of Spider-Man 4.

[murnngtar]

I was just thinking a couple weeks ago while rewatching, just how backwards it felt that Peter immediately went straight back to his revenge crusade upon learning he got the wrong guy. I didn't used to think much of it because I misremembered it as him already having the symbiote at that point, so it would have made a bit more sense. My immediate thought after seeing that was "Wait wait wait wait. What the hell happened to with great power comes great responsibility?? It's like the boy didn't learn a damn thing from Uncle Ben."

[rockoperajon]

Don’t see how it would have been difficult to split the movie into two parts. Part one could have been the black suit Spidey story with Sandman as the main antagonist, then part 2 could be all about Venom while Peter is trying to reconcile with Harry and Mary Jane. By giving these plot threads more time to be explored, we could’ve gotten two great movies instead of one overstuffed mess (albeit with a few great scenes)

[SummonersBand]

Awesome video! Lots of new insights. Only note is that Mary Jane being in the climax damsel position was because of a complaint by Kirsten Dunst for being replaced by another character.

[darryl]

It made 1 billion ar the box office hardly a failure but after the awesome Spider-Man 2 any follow up was bound to disappoint but the action scenes are great

[MikeOrtego]

I've seen images on line of a black symbiote suit that looked way closer to the comics. Wish we had gotten that!