Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN series actor Dylan Baker talks about his disappointment at not returning for the fourth film

Director Sam Raimi launched a new era of superhero movies when it kicked off its web crawler franchise with Spiderman (2002). His trilogy blew fans away, and even though the character and story have been rebooted several times since then, these films are still favorites of the fans who loved them. But it turns out we could have had at least one more story set in this exact universe, if the studio hadn’t wanted to go in a different direction.

One person who was particularly disappointed by this decision was the actor Dylan Bakerwho played Dr. Curt Connors in films 2 and 3. He had been groomed to fully transform into the villain Lizard in the fourth film, and explained his feelings in a recent interview with CB:

“I have to say that when Sam Raimi called me and told me he wouldn’t be chosen to direct Spider-Man 4 [I was disappointed]. He started talking to me about the script that he had written and it was ready to be made and ready to be shot, but it wasn’t going to be able to be made at the time they wanted it to be made.”

Baker says the film would be very close to Lizard, allowing the iconic Spidey villain to explore the world the director had created across three films.

“It was just about letting Lizard go out and see the world and it killed me. I wish I had done it. Luckily, Rhys Ifans was fantastic and I was able to say, ‘Very well done,’ while still wishing I could have done it. .”

It has been a long-standing wish of many to see Raimi finally make it to the movies Spider-Man 4 after all these years. The movement was reignited after Raimi joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe to film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness while Tobey Maguire reappeared as Peter Parker in the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Actor Thomas Haden Churchwho played Flint Marco aka Sandman in both Raimi’s Spider-Man universe and the MCU Spider-Man: No Way Home insists that Raimi will eventually get the film made. Previously he had told CB:

“But you know, I think Sam will do another Spider-Man with Tobey [Maguire]and that’s what… They had an option for me to do Spider-Man 4 when there would be a Spider-Man 4. They had an option on me to return. So if that happened, that would be great. I’m getting a little older.”

Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy is now streaming on Peacock. Baker appears next Laroy, Texaswhich will be released in theaters and on demand on April 12.