I Can’t Believe MCU’s Spider-Man Movies Have The Perfect Opportunity To Use Tobey Maguire"s Cut Spider-Man 4’s Villain Story

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I cannot believe that almost 20 years later after the planned story for Tobey Maguire"s canceled fourth movie, the MCU"s Spider-Man 4 or its sequels have the chance to use one of its cut villains. Sam Raimi"s canceled Spider-Man 4 starring Tobey Maguire has become infamous over the years. Due to the love the original trilogy has and the return of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man: No Way Home, more information about the canceled project has been unveiled over the years, with many even wanting it to be reborn as an upcoming Marvel movie.
Despite these desires, Marvel Studios is hard at work on the MCU"s Spider-Man 4 story involving Tom Holland. That said, the film has been rumored to be another multiversal story that could potentially mark another return for Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. It is worth noting that this is simply conjecture at this point, but the promise of more entries into Spider-Man"s MCU timeline offers a lot of room for storytelling involving the Web-Slinger. To make matters more interesting, the MCU has unintentionally laid the perfect foundations to incorporate elements from Maguire"s canceled Spider-Man 4 into future stories.
The Plans For Spider-Man 4's Story Involved The Vulture's Daughter Succeeding Him Sony's Spider-Man 4 Was Set To Include An Interesting Twist

Custom image by Nicolas Ayala Firstly, it is worth exploring what the plans were for Sony"s Spider-Man 4 starring Tobey Maguire. As many well know by this point, Sam Raimi wanted to showcase Peter fighting against one of the character"s most iconic comic book villains: Vulture. John Malkovich was lined up to play Adrian Toomes in the sequel, yet Raimi chose not to direct the film due to Sony Pictures" interference with Spider-Man 3 and his unwillingness to direct a movie that was dictated by studio mandates, among other reasons.

Related Why Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 Never Happened Sam Raimi"s Spider-Man 4 was already in development when it was canceled. However, Tobey Maguire"s return was unlikely to happen from the start.
Posts Regardless, those involved in the early development of Spider-Man 4 have since been candid about what the film was set to include beyond Vulture. As reported by The Direct, the story would have taken an interesting direction after the death of Vulture at some point. This would have resulted in the villainous mantle being picked up by someone else: Adrian Toomes" daughter. Sony reportedly wanted Angelina Jolie for this role, with the so-called Vultress marking an original villain stemming from Toomes" comic book alter ego.
The MCU Already Has The Perfect Setup For Spider-Man 4's Villain Story The MCU Could Follow In Spider-Man 4's Canceled Footsteps Close This story sounds interesting enough as it is, but becomes even more so when factoring in that the MCU has already set up this exact story. Spider-Man: Homecoming saw Peter go up against Vulture in the MCU, with the character"s love interest in the story being Liz. In the third act of the film, a best-ever Spider-Man twist revealed that Liz was the Vulture"s daughter. Despite the film ending with Liz and her mother moving to Oregon after Adrian Toomes" arrest at the hands of Spider-Man, the MCU has the potential to bring Liz back as Vultress as Raimi intended to do with Spider-Man 4.
The reason for this is the potential animosity that Liz could feel towards Spider-Man. Although Liz was admittedly depicted as a level-headed person who would more than likely blame her father"s poor choices than Spider-Man for the former"s arrest, it would not be difficult for the MCU to establish anger that stemmed from the aftermath of Vulture vs. Spider-Man. If so, Liz could return in a future MCU Spider-Man movie and seek revenge against Spidey for her father"s arrest, thus adapting Spider-Man 4"s story long after it was canceled.
I Genuinely Hope The MCU Mirrors What We Know About Spider-Man 4's Story In Its Future The MCU Would Benefit From This Story

Custom Image by David Miller For many reasons, I hope that I am right and the MCU does take up the story of Tobey Maguire"s canceled Spider-Man 4 for Tom Holland"s future as the character. Firstly, this story sounds suitably street-level. A big criticism of the MCU"s Spider-Man is that he has not felt like, well, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man from Marvel Comics. To an extent, I would agree with this, and I hold out hope that some of the future movies starring Holland will focus on smaller, more personal stories. Having Liz return as a villain would certainly allow for this to happen.
Moreover, I think this story would benefit the character of Liz. Making her a compelling villain with strong reasoning for being so would mark a significant improvement on her characterization from Spider-Man: Homecoming. For the most part, I enjoyed Liz in that film and thought Laura Harrier did a good job, but there is no denying she felt somewhat typecast as a love interest with little to no story of her own outside of her connection to Peter. Making her Vultress would fix that, presenting a strong story for Spider-Man 4 or beyond that links to the canceled Maguire plot.
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Spider-Man 4 Science Fiction Release Date July 22, 2026 Director Destin Daniel Cretton Writers Chris McKenna Producers Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito Cast See All