Back in 2002, David Koepp wrote the screenplay for Sam Raimi’s firstSpider-Manfilm. The movie was a huge hit and defined the superhero movie genre for years to come. But Koepp did not return to write the sequels for Raimi’sSpider-Manfranchise. In an interview with Collider, Koepp revealed what he had planned for the webbed wall-crawler inSpider-Man 2 & 3.
“Basically [my trilogy idea] was the telling of theGwen Stacey/Harry Osbourne story but I spaced everything out differently. I wanted Gwen to be killed in the middle of the second movie, because that follows sort of the Empire Strikes Back model, and I had different villains I wanted to use. Just a different way to tell that story.”
So ifDavid Koepphad remained with the franchise,Spider-Man 2would have focused on Gwen Stacy and Harry Osbourne, and Doctor Octopus would not have been the main villain. It is difficult to estimate how much better or worse this version ofSpider-Man 2would have been, but considering theSpider-Man 2movie with Doc Ock that ultimately got made is frequently counted among the greatest superhero movies ever, things worked out for fans.
As far as Koepp is concerned, he got the chance to work on aSpider-Manmovie again, when he was asked to return to scriptwriting duties for the sequel to Marc Webb’sThe Amazing Spider-Man. While Koepp initially wanted to use the opportunity to finish the trilogy he had originally wanted to make for the webbed wall-crawler, he came to realize the moment to bring that particularSpider-Man movie sagabefore audiences had passed.
“There was a time maybe seven or eight years ago when I was gonna come back for a couple Spider-Man movies, after they’d done their first Amazing Spider-Man. On the very first Spider-Man I sort of planned out what I thought the first three movies should be, and then all the assorted personalities it didn’t work for me to keep writing the Spider-Man movies…”
So I was excited to come back and try to finish the story I started telling in the first one, and as we were about to agree that I was going to do that, I pulled out all the old stuff and I started outlining those two movies and I thought, ‘Boy, you’re able to’t go home again. That moment has passed. The time when I was really feeling it was 10 years ago, and there’s no point in trying to recreate it.’ So I bailed."
And so ended Koepp’s on screen relationship withSpider-Man. But despite not having had the opportunity to tell the fullSpider-Mansaga he had envisioned, the writer can take pride in the fact that he was a part of the start of the superhero movies boom that has grown to dominate Hollywood in present times. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is gearing up to set up his new cinematic universe under Sony, alongside Venom, Morbius, and a host of fan-favorite characters from the comics. This news comes fromCollider.
