Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 was set to feature Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, and John Malkovich, but the director departed before the film’s release.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is considered by most Marvel fans to be iconic. However, had a fourth part being released, Tobey Maguire’s franchise could be a bigger spectacle. Spider-Man 4 was all set to have some of the biggest names like Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and Anne Hathaway essaying iconic roles.

Angelina Jolie as Thena in a still from Eternals

According to recent interesting reports, Angelina Jolie and Anne Hathaway were almost cast as Vulturess and Black Cat in the fourth Sam Raimi movie. However, the plans went South when Sam Raimi himself left the director’s chair as he couldn’t understand how to bring profit to such a high-budget movie.

Angelina Jolie and Anne Hathaway were almost cast in Spider-Man 4

Before Catwoman, Anne Hathaway was supposed to be Marvel’s Black Cat

Recently with the release of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, it was revealed that Spider-Man 4 was supposed to be a bigger and more star-studded fest. After the success of the first three movies, the studio was almost set to take in Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and Anne Hathaway.

John Malkovich and the Mr. and Mrs. Smith actress were supposed to play the father-daughter duo of Vulture and Vulturess. It is reported that Malkovich’s portrayal of the villain would have been different from what Michael Keaton delivered in MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway would have played Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat.

The addition of this cast to the Tobey Maguire franchise could make it more grand and spectacular. But the plans fell hard after Sam Raimi couldn’t handle the pressure of delivering such a big hit and left the project. The director not only failed to put the script together on time but also couldn’t understand how to give profits to a movie that had a budget of almost $400 million.

Why did Sam Raimi leave Spider-Man 4?

Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man

It is to be noted that despite being a massive blockbuster, Spider-Man 3 received a very negative reception. So Sam Raimi wanted to make Spider-Man 4 on a more grand scale and end it on a very high note and failed to complete the script on time.

In a 2013 interview with Vulture, the Doctor Strange 2 director explained his parting ways with Sony as “the most amicable and undramatic of breakups“. He openly admitted to Sony that he didn’t want to make the fourth installment which led the franchise to receive a complete reboot with Andrew Garfield.

“It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work. I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note- But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture.’”

Soon Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone along with director Marc Webb delivered the not-so-successful The Amazing Spider-Man duology. This reboot franchise also suffered from a similar fate and we didn’t get the promised third installment. On the other hand, Angelina Jolie also didn’t appear in any superhero movie until Eternals where she played the role of Thena.