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Spider-Man Director Sam Raimi Explains Why He Wanted John Malkovich As The Vulture


Sam Raimi may have never gotten to work on Spider-Man 4, however, had the project moved forward in 2004, then the director would have featured Being John Malkovich star John Malkovich as the Vulture. For those who aren't that familiar with the comic book character, the Vulture is a fictional supervillain who turns to a life of crime after finding out that his business partner had been embezzling money from their joint enterprise.

Though his origin was later on tweaked, Vulture got to appear in Jon Watt's Spider-Man: Homecoming with Birdman actor Michael Keaton playing the role.

Speaking in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit to help promote his new horror movie, Grudge, Raimi was asked why he wanted to cast Malkovich as the Vulture. The filmmaker gave a pretty thoughtful response.

"Because he's such a powerful actor," the director explained, "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."

Malkovich is a pretty powerful actor, and he could have that kind of menace for the role. However, while we would want to see Malkovich as the Marvel villain, Raimi's franchise lost momentum after Spider-Man3, and the film franchise was rebooted multiple times. First, there was The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. The franchise lasted only two movies before Sony struck a deal with Marvel, ushering the age of Tom Holland as the new Peter Parker. Marvel's Spider-Man movies, of course, have been nothing short of a success. Marvel fans love Holland's depiction of Spidey, saying that he's the most comic book accurate version of the character to date.

The next untitled Spider-Man movie is set to premiere on July 16, 2021.

Read: The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal Reportedly Being Eyed for Marvel's Moon Knight

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