Sam Raimi Recalls Spider-Man Web Shooter Backlash: ‘It Wasn’t a Good Thing For Me’

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is often fondly remembered, and even made a triumphant return recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home. But we need to talk about those web shooters…

During an interview with Variety, director Sam Raimi explained how his organic version of Spider-Man’s iconic web shooters went down with the fans.

“I don’t think that the fans thought I was the right person to direct Spider-Man in general,” he said. “And then the organic web shooters — when the fans found out I was going that way, they tried to have me removed from the picture.”

In the comic books, Peter Parker invents his own web fluid and shooters, but Raimi decided to go a very different way by making them a part of his spider-bite mutation.

Unfortunately, that didn’t go down well with the fans.

Before the film was released, there was a significant backlash to the organic web shooters, with Spider-Man fans demanding Raimi be removed from his director position.

“I was aware of it, and it wasn’t a good thing for me,” he explained. “I didn’t have a great experience of the fans.”

Thankfully, Sony didn’t bow to the pressure and Raimi got to keep his organic web shooters, even if they are a bit gross.

“People had a lot of opinions about what we should and shouldn’t do, who we should hire as the director, who we should hire to play Peter, everything else,” said former Sony boss Amy Pascal. “But it was nothing in comparison to what it’s like now.”

Where did they come from? Well, that’s all down to James Cameron…

Before Spider-Man made it to the big screen, Cameron was attached to write and direct his own version. It ultimately fell apart, but Cameron’s treatment remained… and Spider-Man writer David Koepp liked one of his many fresh ideas.

“He had some very good ideas in it,” Koepp told IGN. “I like the organic web-shooters, which some people liked and some people didn’t, but that was his idea and I was happy to use it.”

Ultimately, they made it into the movie – regardless of what you think. And the two other Peters in No Way Home seemed pretty impressed… if a bit freaked out.

Want more Spider-Man action? Read about all the upcoming Spider-Man spin-offs currently in development.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Author: Ryan Leston. [Source Link (*), IGN All]

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