It was certainly a disappointing time for many Spider-Man fans when Spider-Man 4 was cancelled. Although many thought Sony would go through with developing a follow-up to Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire, they chose to reboot the film franchise instead. As such, it wouldn’t be until last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home that we would get to see Tobey Maguire back in the suit again. With that in mind, it’s still interesting to see what could’ve been with Spider-Man 4, and that includes actor John Malkovich’s take on Vulture.
Although the character was eventually used for Spider-Man: Homecoming, fans would have first saw John Malkovich portray the character in Spider-Man 4. And, while the film ultimately did not get made, it turns out that work had already begun on creating Vulture.
As you can see below, via author and illustrator Ken Penders, John Malkovich’s Vulture wings were constructed before Sony pulled the plug. Now, after 15 years, photos of these concepts and props have been released.
Here’s the photos of John Malkovich’s Vulture:
Crazy how this is blowing up but the actual official model of John Malkovitch as vulture for Spider-Man 4 hasn’t pic.twitter.com/5MnovE4doW
— Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 (@RaimiHope) November 28, 2022
Before Tobey & Sam were bid adieu by Sony, work actually had begun on SPIDER-MAN 4, and I visited friends who were working on the Vulture’s costume intended for actor John Malkovich. Once production shut down, all materials were turned in. I’ve sat on this for almost 15 years. pic.twitter.com/iY3VmzUrHI
— Ken Penders (@KenPenders) November 28, 2022
My bad. It seems I DID have a pic where the John Malkovich body mold can clearly be seen as well as a pic showing the controls to manipulate the wings.The things one finds lying around on hard drives I haven’t looked at for awhile & did so while searching for something else. pic.twitter.com/woInZs2KRN
— Ken Penders (@KenPenders) November 28, 2022
Awesome! I’m guessing your friend was part of the Frontline Design team. I know those wings were sold online and were displayed at Edmonton’s Prop Museum in 2019 before closing down. pic.twitter.com/ID053oybIE
— Fillmoreantidote (@DolosGallo) November 28, 2022
It’s definitely a great look at what could have been. Of course, given the course of history, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see Sam Raimi’s intended vision for Vulture ever hit the big screen. While it’s certainly nice to have had Michael Keaton play the character in Spider-Man: Homecoming, it was clearly a much different take than what we would have gotten otherwise. Especially seeing as though Sam Raimi’s Vulture would have been a much darker villain in Spider-Man 4 – and with practical wings no less. But at least we can get these glimpses even so many years after the fact.
Fans can stay tuned to ScreenGeek for additional updates on all things Spider-Man and Marvel as we have them. And who knows? Maybe we’ll continue to see even more secrets from Sam Raimi’s cancelled Spider-Man 4 rise to the surface.