As Marvel fans prepare themselves for Tobey Maguire's rumored return as Spider-Man in December's No Way Home, it's interesting to consider the world that could have been if he had never departed the role.
Director Sam Raimi initially planned to continue his Spider-Man trilogy beyond the controversial third film, with plans having been made for another three. Ultimately, creative differences between Raimi and the studio led to the director's departure and Sony's decision to reboot the franchise with Andrew Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man.
While Spider-Man 4 never even made it to the scripting stage, that didn't stop Activision from pressing ahead with a video game adaptation. Obviously, this title went on to be canceled.
However, new gameplay recently surfaced, offering the best look yet at the scrapped title.
Gameplay Leaks from Canceled Spider-Man 4 Tie-In
Obscure Gamers shared new Xbox 360 gameplay footage from the unreleased Spider-Man 4 game which was in development at Radical Entertainment to tie in with Tobey Maguire's fourth theatrical outing.
The leaked gameplay showcases Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man swinging through New York City, taking on an armed helicopter and a boss battle against an armored enemy called the Brawler.
Spider-Man 4 was in development for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC at Radical Entertainment from late 2008 until January 2010, at which point complications with the theatrical release led to its cancellation in favor of The Amazing Spider-Man.
The footage can be seen below:
The Downfall of Maguire's Spider-Man Saga
Back in the early 2000s, adaptations of theatrical blockbusters were commonplace within the video game industry. Typically, these titles were rushed together in the latter portion of a film's development, leading to a relatively underwhelming adaptation of the cinematic action which influenced them.
With Spider-Man 4 having entered development in late 2008, it appears Activision got to work on preparing for Sony's next wall-crawler release a matter of months after the last hit theaters.
Based on the gameplay available, it appears Radical Entertainment got fairly far into the production of its superhero title, which clearly took inspiration from its previous AAA release, Prototype.
Radical's title went on to be replaced by Beenox's adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man, which was released in June 2012 to coincide with Andrew Garfield's heroic debut.
Gameplay previously circulated from Eurocom's Nintendo Wii version of the title, but the recent leak offered the first look at the more advanced version which would have been released across most platforms.
While much of the general gameplay mechanics and open-world appear to have already been created at the time of this build, it's clearly few missions had actually been designed as much of the film's story was yet to be implemented.
Even though Radical's take on the wall-crawler will never see the light of day, it's interesting to see a peek behind the curtain of what could have been in another corner of the multiverse in which Tobey Maguire continued on in the role.
