Sam Raimi, the director of Columbia Pictures’ original “Spider-Man” trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, has spoken out about watching his original cast reprise their roles in last year’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
In an exclusive interview with Variety while promoting the Oscar-shortlisted film “You’re Dead Hélène,” a live-action horror short film produced by Raimi, the director discussed seeing Maguire, Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina take up their iconic characters once again.
“It was so much fun,” Raimi said. “I love ‘No Way Home’ and the audience I was with went crazy. It was delightful to watch Alfred play his role, and Willem Dafoe, just seeing these guys take it to the next level. And Tobey was awesome as always. The best word I can say is it was refreshing for me.”
The superhero film shows Maguire battling with many of his greatest foes, including Norman Osborn a.k.a. Green Goblin (Dafoe) and Otto Octavius a.k.a. Doctor Octopus (Molina), The success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is undeniable, as the uniting of three Peter Parkers — Maguire, Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield — across three iterations of the web-slinging superhero has continued to rack up returns at the box office. In its sixth week of release, the Sony comic book sequel has grossed an impressive $721 million at the domestic box office, currently sitting as the fourth-highest grossing domestic release of all-time behind “Avatar” (2009), “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015).
“Spider-Man” (2002) and “Spider-Man 2” (2004) both grossed over $400 million at the box office respectively. The first film was nominated for two Oscars — best sound and visual effects — while the sequel won visual effects, in addition to two nods for sound mixing and sound editing.
In terms of Raimi’s next directorial project, the sequel to “Doctor Strange,” the filmmaker wasn’t as willing to reveal details. He did share an uncertainty if the film was done filming, responding to reports that the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring sequel faced “significant reshoots” back in November.
“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” Raimi said, responding to the question of whether the movie was complete. “I think we’re done, but we just cut everything. We’re just starting to test the picture and we’ll find out if there’s anything that’s got to be picked up. If something’s unclear or another improvement I can make in this short amount of time left, I’ll do it. One thing I know about the Marvel team is they won’t stop. They’ll keep pushing it until it’s as close to being great as it could.”
Raimi also emphasized the positive experience he has had working with Marvel Studios and its head Kevin Feige.
“Marvel’s been a great team to work with,” Raimi continued. “I think that was a not-surprising surprise. I’ve been super-supported by the whole Marvel operations, starting at the top with Kevin Feige, and working all the way down to the crews that they work with. [They’re] super professional and have supported me every step of the way.”
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 6, 2022.