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Sam Raimi Weighs In On Marvel’s Spider-Man Plans

Original ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy director Sam Raimi has spoken for the first time about how the iconic superhero series has fared since the three films he made with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, and his hopes for its future with Marvel.

Speaking to MTV News whilst promoting the upcoming TV series ‘Ash Vs Evil Dead’ alongside stars Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless, Raimi was courteous, though concise, when asked about Marc Webb’s two ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films, saying “I saw them both, they were great.”

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When it came to the Sony-Marvel co-produced reboot in the works with director Jon Watts, actor Tom Holland and recently announced writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan M Goldstein, Raimi had a bit more to say.

“I’m really glad Marvel’s taking it to high school. I think that’s gonna be refreshing, and just like my favourite of the Spider-Man comic books. And I have a lot of faith that they really know their stuff.“

Regarding what he would hope to see in the reboot, Raimi said, “I’d like to go into his high school life and his relationships with Gwen Stacy,” adding “I love Flash Thompson,” the school bully seen in the first film portrayed by an almost-unrecognisable Joe Manganiello.

Raimi went on, “the difficulty of going through high school is so unique to a superhero… that’s what Spider-Man’s all about, and so that they’re going to explore that head-on is very exciting.”

At this point Bruce Campbell piped up to point out that he’s done a high school superhero movie in ‘Sky High’ - and we certainly won’t begrudge him giving that one a plug, as it’s an underrated gem.

Watch the interview below.

With talk of the new ‘Spider-Man’ aiming for a John Hughes high school comedy vibe, we might wonder if this new take on the character will be closer to what Raimi himself really wanted to do. It’s often been reported that the director’s dedication to the original 1960s Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics was at odds with the wishes of Sony at the time, as is of course most evident in the painfully muddled ‘Spider-Man 3.’

Still, the deeply flawed third film aside (which, in this writer’s view, is less flawed than ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2′), Raimi’s first two ‘Spider-Man’ films remain highly regarded, with Marvel’s Kevin Feige recently declaring ‘Spider-Man 2′ to be one of the greatest superhero films ever made.

The still untitled ‘Spider-Man’ reboot is due to hit cinemas in July 2017. Before that, Tom Holland will make his debut in the role in ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ opening on 29 April 2016.

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Picture Credit: Sony, WENN