It’s easy to forget in this day and age of vaunted superhero films that there was a time when the genre was a much harder sell and lacked the immense success at the box office that it has enjoyed over the past decade. There were several films and franchises that started to truly change that narrative, however, including Sam Raimi’s beloved Spider-Man trilogy. What you might not know though is that one of the film’s biggest memes was a product of studio interference, and yes, it also involved Power Rangers.
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The original Spider-Man from Raimi and star Tobey Maguire was a revelation and truly showcased what a superhero movie could be, and that led to even bigger anticipation for the sequel. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Spider-Man 2 screenwriter Al Gough revealed that the studio then implemented a mask-off mandate for the movie due to one particular scene in the original, though that mandate would end up resulting in a now infamous scene meme, and it’s all thanks to Power Rangers (via Popverse).
The Mask Is Off
In the interview, Gough reveals that this all stemmed from one of the final scenes in the original movie between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and they decided to change things in the sequel as a result.
“The other thing too, which is interesting, is from the first movie, because again, this is the old days before now, when you’ve got the eyes moving and stuff, is [Sony] is like, ‘We need to get his mask off more in situations,” Gough said. “Because [Toby] had done some ADR in the first movie with the Green Goblin, and they were all worried before the movie came out.”
“There’s a scene of them on the roof, it was Green Goblin talking to Spider-Man, they both had masks on, their mouths didn’t move, it was like two masked figures. It felt like Power Rangers. So, they were really worried. They were like, ‘We can’t do this again.’ So, in the second movie he’s always taking his mask off and talking.”
A Meme is Born
There are some truly odd choices related to this mandate, which you can see throughout Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. For someone who is so protective of his secret identity and who he lets close to him, he sure takes his mask off every single chance he gets, and fans definitely noticed this throughout the other films.
We also have this to thank for that now iconic scene where Spider-Man is attempting to hold back a train from going off the tracks, and it is truly one of the film’s most powerful sequences. Spider-Man goes to the point of exhaustion to slow the train down and save everyone on board, but it can be hard to pay attention to all that as you look at Maguire’s face, which is giving this truly pained expression that has become a frequent meme and GIF ever since.
It takes you right out of the moment, and funnily enough, it wouldn’t have happened if Sony had just gotten out of the way and left his mask on. Things only got more ridiculous from there, like when Peter removed the mask before he attended a ceremony, because that’s exactly where you want to reveal your real identity.
While Power Rangers was their specific example, it actually goes to show the dated view of superhero concepts in general. They just described a superhero movie with people in masks, which is around 60% of all superhero stories, and fans like them fine. Having a helmet on or a mask is just part of the gig, and we’ve learned over the years that when an actor truly knocks a character out of the park, it really doesn’t matter if they have a mask or not; fans will love it.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
