Marvel Releases Mysterious Spider-Man 4 Teaser

Marvel today released a new teaser that is sure to get the fandom talking. The teaser is the number four written in a spider’s web. As for what it means, Marvel hasn’t said.

We can assume that it is related to a comic book project since it bears the #MarvelComics hashtag. The spider webs suggest it has to do with Spider-Man or the Spider-Man family. The “four” will have Marvel fans immediately thinking of the Fantastic Four. Marvel’s first family returned to the Marvel universe last year after several years of absence. Could this be a Spider-Man and Fantastic Four team-up event?

Spider-Man has long been an ally of the Fantastic Four. He is close friends with the Human Torch. Spidey even took Johnny’s place on the Fantastic Four to honor his memory after Johnny died. The Fantastic Four are at full strength now, so it seems unlikely that Spider-Man would join the team. So a team up rather than formal recruitment is more likely.

If we can put on our tinfoil hats for a second, there is another theory. The teaser may have nothing to do with the Fantastic Four. What if, instead, it is teasing the unmade movie Spider-Man 4? Yes, the Marvel Comics hashtag suggests this is comic book project. What if Marvel plans to tell the story of Spider-Man 4 in comic book form?

For those who don’t know, Spider-Man 4 entered development in 2007. It would have been the fourth Spider-Man film directed by Sam Raimi, with Tobey Maguire starring as Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst playing Mary Jane Watson. Interviews with Raimi suggested he was considering the Lizard as the film’s villain, or building on Bruce Campbell’s cameo appearance in the first Spider-Man and turning him into the villain Mysterio. Reports suggested John Malkovich was in negotiations to play Vulture and Anne Hathaway to place Felicia Hardy.

The film would have set up the second trilogy of Spider-Man movies, but plans for the film fell through. In 2010, Sony Pictures canceled the project and moved forward with the Amazing Spider-Man reboot. According to Raimi, he stepped away from the project because he couldn’t meet the release date Sony had planned, and Sony refused to push the film back.

Could Marvel Comics is giving Sam Raimi the opportunity to tell the Spider-Man story he never got to tell? Sure, the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four team-up is more likely, but Marvel Comics editor-in-chief CB Cebulski retweeted the teaser saying, “No one is going to see this one coming…” It has to be something more unexpected that another Spidey and Fantastic Four team-up, right?

What do you think the mysterious teaser is about? Let us know in the comments.