Video games get canceled all the time. Some we know about, some we don’t… one we didn’t know about is the tie-in game for Spider-Man 4.
The Spider-Man 4 film was slated to release in May 2011 after the massive financial success of Spider-Man 3 but the production quickly became troubled. Series director Sam Raimi had trouble getting the script for Spider-Man 4 in a place he was happy with as he wanted to make the best film in the series yet. Both Raimi and fans were disappointed with the quality of the third film which had lots of behind the scenes interference from Sony.
The film was eventually scrapped in 2010 in favor of a total reboot fast-tracked for a release in 2012. With the cancelation of the film also came the cancelation of the then-unannounced Spider-Man 4 game which was being developed by Radical Entertainment as opposed to Beenox who had developed many of the titles based on the Marvel hero prior.
Some screenshots recently surfaced from Environment/Prop Artist Wayne Dalton’s ArtStation page showing a few screenshots of the game in its very early stages. While they don’t showcase anything super special or give any indication of what the game would’ve centered around, it’s a cool piece of gaming history. Radical later repurposed some elements of the canceled Spider-Man 4 game into what became Prototype 2.
Rumors and storyboards have pointed at The Vulture being the primary villain in the film with Black Cat also playing a role in the story which the game likely would’ve adapted. Other than that, no one but those involved with the project really knows what the film or game would’ve been about.
The wall-crawler hasn’t had a film tie-in game since 2014 but he seems to be well-off without one. Insomniac Games and PlayStation released Marvel’s Spider-Man last year and was widely regarded as an instant hit and the best game ever made focused on the web-slinger.
A sequel has yet to be announced but has been heavily teased the introduction of Miles Morales as a new Spider-Man with Green Goblin and Venom as villains.
