Back before X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superhero genre was a pretty tough nut to crack. Now Hollywood has mostly gotten it figured out, but it didn’t always used to be this way. Here are some of the weirder early attempts we could have gotten.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series may look a little quaint by today’s standards, but when the first film dropped in 2002, it hit like a minor miracle. The flick enjoyed the biggest opening weekend ever at the time, validating Raimi’s lifelong dream of bringing a comic book hero to life. His 1990 cult classic Darkman, with a superheroic character of his own creation, was the result of the director being rebuffed at every turn in his bid to adapt an existing comic book property such as the Shadow or Batman. After that film’s relative success, Raimi figured he had some creative capital to spend.
When beloved Marvel mastermind Stan Lee died in late 2018, Raimi shared a story about what could have been with The Hollywood Reporter.
“After I did Darkman, Stan Lee called me and was like, ‘Hey, kid, I liked your movie,’ He took me out to lunch and said we should work together.”
Raimi said he told Lee that he’d like to make a movie about Thor, who had previously only appeared in live-action form in the TV movie The Incredible Hulk Returns. Turns out, the people who owned the film rights to the character weren’t ready for another try just yet.
According to Raimi,
“We worked together writing treatments and took it to Fox and pitched it. And they said, ‘Absolutely no. Comic books don’t make good movies.’ This was in 1991.”
It would take Raimi another eight years to land the gig of his dreams, and it’s safe to say that he acquitted himself pretty well.
Watch the video to learn about more superhero movies you never got to see!
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Sam Raimi’s Thor | 0:13
Venom starring Topher Grace | 1:36
Nick Cassavetes’ Iron Man | 2:44
John Singleton’s Luke Cage | 4:06
David S. Goyer’s The Flash | 5:11
Iron Fist starring Ray Park | 6:08
Wesley Snipes: Black Panther | 7:32
Kathryn Bigelow’s Wolverine and the X-Men | 9:11
Cannon Films’ Spider-Man | 10:20