Spider-Man 4: Why Sam Raimi wanted John Malkovich for the Vulture
Sam Raimi had great ideas for Spider-Man 4. One of them was potentially casting John Malkovich as the Vulture. In an AMA with Reddit yesterday, the director revealed why he wanted the actor to play the villain.
Sam Raimi had tremendous plans for Spider-Man 4. Sadly, they never came to fruition. There has been plenty of banter about Bruce Campbell being cast as Mysterio which the actor has denied vehemently for years.
However, there is another actor that Raimi had set his sights on for one of the top villains. According to Movieline, John Malkovich was apparently circling the role of the Vulture. If you think about it, he would have been an excellent choice.
The actor is definitely good at being menacing as we have seen in movies like In the Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood and Con Air with Nicolas Cage. Physically, he would have nailed the part of Adrian Toomes. What we wouldn’t have given to see him square off against Tobey Maguire’s Spidey.
Malkovich did confirm that he was indeed going to play the part for Raimi. In an interview with Collider in 2010, he revealed that his casting might have been the reason why the film never came to fruition.
He felt that the fans of the genre may not have wanted the Vulture as an adversary to Spider-Man. In other words, they didn’t approve of him in the role which is insane!
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Of course, the actor admitted that he was disappointed when everything fell through because he really liked Sam and Tobey and wanted to work with them. The feeling was evidentially mutual on Raimi’s part.
When a fan questioned why Sam was looking at Malkovich to play the Vulture on the director’s Reddit AMA yesterday, here was his response:
"“Because he’s such a powerful actor. I could fear him and worry for Peter Parker. And it’s just the craft of casting. Basically, it boils down to this: I believe that he could be that guy.”"
Who knows what the future holds? Maybe in another Sam Raimi film we will get to see him collaborate with John Malkovich. Fingers crossed…
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Would you like to see Sam Raimi team up with John Malkovich in the future? Let us know in the comments.