Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man 4 was a proposed sequel to Spider-Man 3 with a May 6, 2011 release.

Plot
The alleged plotline for Spider-Man 4 picked up five years after the events of Spider-Man 3 and had Peter Parker leaving Mary Jane and entering into a relationship with Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. They are brought into conflict, however, when Peter kills her father, the sinister super villain known as the Vulture. The script ended with a despondant and regretful Peter discarding his Spider-Man suit, ending the series on a sour note.

Cast

 * Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
 * John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes/Vulture
 * Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
 * Rosemary Harris as May Parker
 * J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
 * Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson
 * Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant
 * Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy
 * Dylan Baker as Curt Connors/The Lizard
 * James Cromwell as George Stacy
 * Bruce Campell as Quentin Beck/Mysterio
 * Elya Baskin as Mr. Ditkovich
 * Mageina Tova as Ursula Ditkovich
 * Michael Papajohn as Dennis Carradine/The Carjacker

Why It Was Cancelled

 * 1) Spider-Man 3 got mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences.
 * 2) Many fans were disappointed with Spider-Man 3.
 * 3) Sam Raimi, the director of the first three films admitted that he was exhausted and unhappy with the third film and decided to cancel the fourth film.
 * 4) The release date became an issue since Sam Raimi couldn't meet the Summer 2011 release date that Sony wanted.
 * 5) Sony wanted multiple villains in the film but Sam Raimi wanted to stick with only one.
 * 6) Bill Nunn pursued his career to star in other films before he died in 2016.
 * 7) The storyline championed by Raimi was dour and downbeat, with a main antagonist that wasn't seen as marketable enough by Sony executives, who preferred someone more visually interesting, like Electro or Carnage.
 * 8) Raimi wanted to push the film's release date back in order for a better script to be written after being dissatisfied with previous drafts. This angered Sony, who opted for a cheaper reboot which already had a script completed, one which was thought to be better than the scripts for Spider-Man 4.

Results

 * Spider-Man 4 was permanently cancelled.
 * Sony and Marvel hit the reset button with two reboot films The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. Then in 2017, Sony released the most recent reboot Spider-Man: Homecoming and its 2019 sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * Jeffrey Henderson later revealed in June of 2016 the storyboards for Spider-Man 4 showing what the film might've been had it been made.
 * Elements from the cancelled film would be used for the two reboot film series The Amazing Spider-Man and the MCU films Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far from Home, as well as the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
 * Sam Raimi, the director of the original Spider-Man trilogy is directing the upcoming Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness film and could bring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to MCU.

Trivia

 * Jeffrey Henderson later revealed in June of 2016 the storyboards for Spider-Man 4 showing what the film might have been like had if it was made.