Sam Raimi Reacts To No Way Home Using His Spider-Man Characters
Sam Raimi, who helmed Sony's original Spider-Man trilogy, expresses honor of seeing his characters be brought back for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Ever since the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, MCU's Phase 4 has been exploring the Multiverse as one of its next chapters. As Tom Holland's Spider-Man threequel had a lot to finish up following the events of Far From Home, the trilogy finisher also gave three generations of Spidey fans the ultimate wish. After many rumors and denying (particularly from Andrew Garfield,) Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Holland be joined by Garfield and Tobey Maguire for one epic Multiverse adventure.
Marvel kept Maguire and Garfield's involvement under wraps during promotion, but made villains like Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin key parts of the marketing campaign. This illustrated early on No Way Home would be a celebration of all the Spider-Man films, paying tribute to nearly 20 years of cinematic history. For those who grew up with the original Raimi trilogy, it was a thrill to see those characters back on the big screen. Raimi has previously opened up about his reaction to Maguire's No Way Home return, and now he talks more about seeing his versions again.
Even though Raimi's Spider-Man days may be over, the director is joining the MCU as the helmer of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While this becomes his latest comic book adventure, Raimi had big preach for Spider-Man: No Way Home. In a new interview with Empire Online, the director was about what he felt about seeing Maguire's Peter Parker return alongside his respective villains. Raimi expressed gratitude of seeing his take on the characters from the original Spider-Man trilogy get brought back after all these years, stating the following:
“I was honored. It’s like someone said, ‘You know your old friends that have passed away? We’ve found a way to bring them back for a brief time.' Almost as good as having the power of the sun in the palm of your hand, eh?"
In many ways, it probably is a bittersweet feeling for Raimi as his time with the original Spider-Man franchise came to an abrupt end. Despite Spider-Man 3 not being a critical success, Sony Pictures was going to have Raimi return for Spider-Man 4, which was originally set to hit theaters in May 2011. But after the behind-the-scenes drama with the studio, the project was scrapped which was how Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man with Garfield came to happen. Regardless of what happened back then, it's still great to hear from Raimi, especially as his Spider-Man franchise became integral to the comic book film genre in the early 2000s.
As Doctor Strange 2 is coming, it's been rumored that perhaps Maguire's Spider-Man is somehow showing up for a cameo, which would be the actor's first collaboration with Raimi since 2007. While a rumor could simply be that, it wouldn't be shocking as Doctor Strange 2 is reportedly going to get deep with its Multiverse cameos, supposedly even bigger than Spider-Man: No Way Home. One of them is Patrick Stewart's Professor X, which supports the idea of Maguire's Spider-Man potentially being in the film. While anything is possible, time will tell if Raimi and Maguire will ever get to team up again on any type of Spider-Man adventure, following Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Source: Empire Online