See What Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN 4 Vulture Costume Looked Like
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Long ago, in the faraway days of the early 2010s, the Spider-Man franchise was going to take a very different turn. After completing his wildly successful Spider-Man trilogy, Sony set director Sam Raimi to return for a fourth installment. His villains were going to include Mysterio (Bruce Campbell) and the Vulture, portrayed by John Malkovich. Work on the film got pretty far along in fact, right until Sony decided to pull the plug and start over with the Amazing Spider-Man reboot. Raimi and company did some serious preproduction work for the film, however, including what would have been the Spider-Man 4 Vulture costume.
Before Tobey & Sam were bid adieu by Sony, work actually had begun on SPIDER-MAN 4, and I visited friends who were working on the Vulture's costume intended for actor John Malkovich. Once production shut down, all materials were turned in. I've sat on this for almost 15 years. pic.twitter.com/iY3VmzUrHI
— Ken Penders (@KenPenders) November 28, 2022
We’ve seen almost none of what they were working on back in the day. Until now that is. Friends invited comic book creator Ken Penders to visit the production offices for what would have been Spider-Man 4. While there, he took several photos of an early version of the Vulture’s wings. As he said in his tweet, Penders sat on these photos for fifteen years. Now, he is finally letting fans see what might have been.
My bad. It seems I DID have a pic where the John Malkovich body mold can clearly be seen as well as a pic showing the controls to manipulate the wings.The things one finds lying around on hard drives I haven't looked at for awhile & did so while searching for something else. pic.twitter.com/woInZs2KRN
— Ken Penders (@KenPenders) November 28, 2022
As you can see, these wings are far closer to the original Steve Ditko design for Adrian Toomes from the ‘60s era Marvel Comics. The version we eventually got of the character in the MCU, played by Michael Keaton, definitely took things in a different direction visually. But it’s still cool to see what could have been.
Although it seems we will never see the Raimi version of Vulture, these days, you really just never know. Raimi did direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for Marvel Studios after all. He may choose to tackle something else in the Multiverse Saga coming up. And then maybe an appearance from his version of the classic Spidey villain could appear. With multiple realities overlapping these days in the MCU, anything seems possible.