History Trivia / SpiderManTrilogy

* ''Trivia/SpiderMan1''
* ''Trivia/SpiderManTheMovie''
* ''Trivia/SpiderMan2''
* ''Trivia/SpiderMan3''

** There had been numerous attempts at making the trilogy a part of a SharedUniverse of some kind in the past. The first attempt occurred during production of the original movie, as it was planned for Creator/HughJackman to make a cameo as [[Film/XMenFilmSeries Wolverine]] in the film, but said attempt fell apart at the last minute due to the production crew being unable to locate his X-Men costume. Later on, Sony considered making a crossover film between ''Spider-Man'' and ''Film/GhostRider'', but decided against it due to the performance of the latter film. Finally, sometime around 2007, there had been two attempts that, had they succeeded, would've made the trilogy a part of the ''Film/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. One of the drafts for ''Film/IronMan'' mentioned that Tony Stark had some degree of involvement in the creation of Otto Octavius' robotic tentacles, and Tobey Maguire was planned to cameo as Peter Parker in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Due to Creator/MarvelStudios and Sony being unable to come to an agreement, both attempts fell through.

* CashCowFranchise: The three movies were huge financial successes. Even the third, which was less well-received by critics or fans than the previous films, was still a success, to the point of being the highest grossing domestic release of 2007, and the highest grossing ''Spider-Man'' film worldwide to date.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: The blonde Creator/KirstenDunst had to dye her hair red, while the redheaded Creator/BryceDallasHoward had to dye her hair blonde.

* DevelopmentGag: The second film has a couple of playful jabs at Tobey Maguire's back problems, which nearly forced him to drop out. This includes the "I'm back, I'm back! …My back, my back!" scene, and a FreezeFrameBonus ''Bugle'' headline claiming link between back pain and brain shrinkage.

* DyeingForYourArt:
** Dunst in the third film (she wore wigs in the previous two.) Interesting, considering Dunst is a blonde playing a redhead and Creator/BryceDallasHoward is a redhead playing a blonde.
** Maguire, Church, and Grace all gained double-digits pounds of muscle.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Raimi had initially had no intention of using Venom since he felt the movies he was making did not have the right tone for the symbiotes, but Sony (particularly Avi Arad) convinced him otherwise. Gwen Stacy and her father were also an addition made by the executives - they were almost put into the ''second'' movie but got moved to the third instead.
** This is what ultimately killed this iteration of the film franchise. ''Spider-Man 4'' was green lit with Raimi wanting to do a storyline with Peter and Mary Jane's wedding and the Vulture as the main villain as well as Dr. Connors becoming The Lizard. However, Sony insisted on doing a story and script that they came up with. According to reports, it had Peter married to Mary Jane for several years, the Vulture being killed by Spider-Man, inciting the wrath of Felicia Hardy -- who would here not be the Black Cat, but the Vulture's daughter called the Vulturess, with whom Peter would essentially cheat on Mary Jane with; and most notably, the ending would have had Mary Jane leaving with her and Peter's baby, and "Spider-Man No More" happening '''again'''. Raimi absolutely ''hated'' this idea and refused to do it which led to him being fired. Maguire and Dunst told the studio they would not reprise their roles unless Raimi was brought back, so the studio decided to cancel the film and do a ContinuityReboot with ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''.
* FakeAmerican:
** Creator/RosemaryHarris, who plays Aunt May, is British.
** ''Spider-Man 2'': Creator/AlfredMolina, who plays Doctor Octopus, is from London. When he says the line, "I should've known Osborn wouldn't have the spine to finish you!", [[OohMeAccentsSlipping his voice slips a bit]].
** Daniel Gillies, who plays John Jameson, is Canadian and grew up in New Zealand.

* RealLifeRelative:
** Ted Raimi in all three films.
** Creator/TobeyMaguire's half-brothers (the two boys who give Peter back his mask) in ''2''.
** Creator/SamRaimi's daughter (the little girl with the camera who sells it to JJ) in ''3''.

** Creator/JakeGyllenhaal would've taken over the role of Peter Parker if Maguire's back problems became too much. Which makes a lot of sense; they resemble each other so much, they actually played brothers in [[Film/Brothers2009 the film of the same name]].

** Creator/StanLee was going to deliver the "He stole that guy's pizza!" line in ''2''. An outtake of this can be seen at the end of the DVD's blooper reel.

** Creator/MichaelChabon, hot off winning a UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize for ''Literature/TheAmazingAdventuresOfKavalierAndClay'', was hired to write ''2''. While his draft wasn't fully used, enough elements were for him to receive a screenwriting credit. [[http://io9.com/379291/read-michael-chabons-script-for-spider-man-2 In his draft]]:
*** Otto Octavius was younger, single and in a LoveTriangle with Peter and Mary Jane.
*** Harry would've gone into [[ParanoiaFuel extreme paranoia]] after Norman's death, and takes out a $10 million bounty against Spider-Man, meaning that Peter has to save people trying to kill him for the reward money.
*** Doctor Octopus' obsession with his exo-arms is [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything framed as an addiction]].
*** Peter [[DeusExMachina inexplicably losing his powers]] is given an answer as Otto gave him a microchip meant to reverse his spider DNA. Later on, Peter's forced to become a CombatPragmatist against Doc Ock.
*** Doc Ock doesn't become fused with his arms until the subway fight.
*** Doc Ock is obsessed with Spider-Man because the chip he gave him can stabilize his fusion with the bionic arms.
*** Aunt May would've been angrier with Peter when she finds out [[WhatTheHellHero that he could've stopped Uncle Ben's killer]]. Later on, they have a discussion where feeling crushed by your responsibilities is normal, not something you can escape from, and not a special destiny.
*** Peter would've gotten his powers back by [[{{Gorn}} taking a knife and pliers and digging the chip out]].
*** Doc Ock captures Spider-Man, and Mary Jane and Harry find out about Peter's secret identity.
*** And lastly, it's Mary Jane who convinces Otto to abandon the experiment through their prior connection, and Spider-Man breaks free and saves Mary Jane.

* TheOtherDarrin: Averted with Spider-Man and the film's villains, as the games saw Creator/TobeyMaguire, Creator/WillemDafoe, Creator/AlfredMolina, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace reprise their roles, but there are still some roles in the films that were recast for the games.

* NoProblemWithLicensedGames: [[VideoGame/SpiderMan2 The game based on the second movie]] is considered to be one of the best licensed superhero games of all time.
* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The games based on the first and third movie, to varying degrees.
** Whilst the game based on the first film was well received upon release, the sequel was such an improvement that it has since fallen under this trope.
** The PSP version of ''Spider-Man 2'' is widely considered to be a lackluster game, lacking most of the features that allow the home console version to avert this trope.
** The ''VideoGame/SpiderMan3'' games, are a bit more complicated. Whilst the [=PS3=]/Xbox 360[=/=]PC version is considered a decent-to-average game that doesn't improve upon it's predecessor, the [=PS2=]/Wii version is considered a widely inferior game that took several steps back from ''Spider-Man 2''.

* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/ElizabethBanks as Betty Brant.
** Future Oscar winner Creator/OctaviaSpencer as the receptionist at the wrestling event who initially laughs off Peter's desire to wrestle Bonesaw.
** Creator/JoeManganiello as Flash Thompson in the first [[TheCameo and third]] films
** From ''Spider-Man 2''
*** [[Series/{{Bones}} Emily Deschanel]] as the Receptionist at the start of the film.
*** Creator/DanielDaeKim pre-''Series/{{Lost}}'' and ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' as Raymond, Otto Octavius' lab assistant.
*** Creator/JoelMcHale pre-''Series/TheSoup'' and Series/{{Community}}'' as the Banker who refuses to give Aunt May a loan.
*** [[Film/TheLastAirbender Aasif]] [[Series/TheDailyShow Mandvi]] as Mr Aziz, Peter's boss at the pizzeria.

** Had there been more films after the third, [[BruceCampbell Bruce Campbell]] would have played Mysterio, which would have retconned the actor's cameos throughout the films as disguises by the same person.

* CashCowFranchise: The three movies were huge financial successes. Even the third, which wasn't well-received by critics or fans, was still a success, to the point of being the highest grossing domestic release of 2007, and the highest grossing ''Spider-Man'' film worldwide to date.

* TheOtherDarrin: Averted with Spider-Man and the film's villains, as the games saw Creator/TobeyMaguire, Creator/WillemDafoe, Creator/AlfredMolina, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace reprise their roles, but there are still some roles in the films that were recast for the games:
** Cat O'Conner and Creator/KariWahlgren replace Creator/KirstenDunst as Mary Jane in the first and third games respectively, with Dunst only reprising the role in the second game.
** Jay Gordon and Creator/JoshKeaton replace Creator/JKSimmons and James Franco in the respective roles of J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osborn, with Simmons and Franco reprising the roles for the third game. Gordon also replaced the late Wrestling/RandySavage as Bone Saw [=McGraw=].
** Mindy Sterling replaces Rosemary Harris as Aunt May.
** Jeff Coopwood and Charlie Robertson replace Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson in the second and third games respectively.
** Bethany Rhoades and Rachel Kimsey replaces Creator/ElizabethBanks as Betty Brant in the second and third games, respectively.
** Peter Lurie replaces Ron Perkins as Mendell Stromm. Lurie himself was replaced as Kraven by Creator/NeilKaplan.
** Dylan Baker is replaced as Curt Connors by Joe Alaskey in the second game and Nathan Carlson in the third.
** Creator/DeeBradleyBaker replaces Mike [=McColl=] as Scorpion.
** Creator/SteveBlum replaces Creator/JohnDiMaggio as the Rhino.

** The script for the fourth film which caused Raimi to leave. According to reports, it had Peter married to Mary Jane for several years, Adrian Toomes replacing Jameson as head of the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man deliberately killing the Vulture, inciting the wrath of Felicia Hardy -- who would here not be the Black Cat, but the Vulture's daughter, with whom Peter would essentially cheat on Mary Jane with; and most notably, the ending would have had Mary Jane leaving with her and Peter's baby, and "Spider-Man No More" happening '''again'''. According to sources, Raimi was repeatedly vocal about how much he hated this script.

** This is what ultimately killed this iteration of the film franchise. ''Spider-Man 4'' was green lit with Raimi wanting to do a storyline with Peter and Mary Jane's wedding as well as Dr. Connors becoming The Lizard. However, Sony insisted on doing a story and script that they came up with. According to reports, it had Peter married to Mary Jane for several years, the Vulture being the main villain who Spider-Man would kill, inciting the wrath of Felicia Hardy -- who would here not be the Black Cat, but the Vulture's daughter, with whom Peter would essentially cheat on Mary Jane with; and most notably, the ending would have had Mary Jane leaving with her and Peter's baby, and "Spider-Man No More" happening '''again'''. Raimi absolutely ''hated'' this idea and refused to do it which led to him being fired. Maguire and Dunst told the studio they would not reprise their roles unless Raimi was brought back, so the studio decided to cancel the film and do a ContinuityReboot with ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Raimi had initially had no intention of using Venom since he felt the movies he was making did not have the right tone for the symbiotes, but Sony (particularly Avi Arad) convinced him otherwise. This is what ultimately killed this iteration of the film franchise. ''Spider-Man 4'' was green lit with Raimi wanting to do a storyline with Peter and Mary Jane's wedding as well as Dr. Connors becoming The Lizard. However, Sony insisted on doing a story and script that they came up with. According to reports, it had Peter married to Mary Jane for several years, the Vulture being the main villain who Spider-Man would kill, inciting the wrath of Felicia Hardy -- who would here not be the Black Cat, but the Vulture's daughter, with whom Peter would essentially cheat on Mary Jane with; and most notably, the ending would have had Mary Jane leaving with her and Peter's baby, and "Spider-Man No More" happening '''again'''. Raimi absolutely ''hated'' this idea and refused to do it which led to him being fired. Maguire and Dunst told the studio they would not reprise their roles unless Raimi was brought back, so the studio decided to cancel the film and do a ContinuityReboot with ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''.

** Dunst (it was a wig in the first film, but she liked the look so the sequels are literal cases). Interesting, considering Dunst is a blonde playing a redhead and Creator/BryceDallasHoward is a redhead playing a blonde.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Raimi had initially had no intention of using Venom since he felt the movies he was making did not have the right tone for the symbiotes, but Sony (particularly Avi Arad) convinced him otherwise.
** This is what ultimately killed this iteration of the film franchise. ''Spider-Man 4'' was green lit with Raimi wanting to do a storyline with Peter and Mary Jane's wedding as well as Dr. Connors becoming The Lizard. However, Sony insisted on doing a story and script that they came up with. According to reports, it had Peter married to Mary Jane for several years, the Vulture being the main villain who Spider-Man would kill, inciting the wrath of Felicia Hardy -- who would here not be the Black Cat, but the Vulture's daughter, with whom Peter would essentially cheat on Mary Jane with; and most notably, the ending would have had Mary Jane leaving with her and Peter's baby, and "Spider-Man No More" happening '''again'''. Raimi absolutely ''hated'' this idea and refused to do it which led to him being fired. Maguire and Dunst told the studio they would not reprise their roles unless Raimi was brought back, so the studio decided to cancel the film and do a ContinuityReboot with ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''.

** Tobey Maguire's half-brothers (the two boys who give Peter back his mask) in ''2''.
** Sam Raimi's daughter (the little girl with the camera who sells it to JJ) in ''3''.

** Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant.
** Future Oscar winner Octavia Spencer as the receptionist at the wrestling event who initially laughs off Peter's desire to wrestle Bonesaw.
** Joe Manganiello as Flash Thompson in the first [[TheCameo and third]] films

*** [[Series/{{Lost}} Daniel]] [[Series/HawaiiFive0 Dae Kim]] as Raymond, Otto Octavius' lab assistant.
*** [[Series/TheSoup Joel]] [[Series/{{Community}} McHale]] as the Banker who refuses to give Aunt May a loan.

** For Creator/TobeyMaguire and Creator/KirstenDunst. It was also James Franco's first big role, but he never became a main event player until later on. Some actors and actresses in the cast also got additional boost because of the trilogy.

** Jake Gyllenhaal would've taken over the role of Peter Parker if Maguire's back problems became too much. Which makes a lot of sense; they resemble each other so much, they actually played brothers in the film of the same name.

** Sam Raimi also wanted Dr. Curt Connors (who was played by Creator/DylanBaker in the previous two films) to become The Lizard at some point in the film.
** Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/JohnMalkovich were both considered for the role of the Green Goblin. Malkovich and Creator/BenKingsley were also considered for the Vulture in the cancelled fourth film.

** Doctor Octopus was going to appear in the first film as a secondary villain to the Green Goblin. Raimi felt that [[HarsherInHindsight having three origin stories would make the movie too cluttered]] and so Doc Ock was saved for the sequel.

* StarMakingRole: For Creator/TobeyMaguire. It was also James Franco's first big role, but he never became a main event player until later on. Some actors and actresses in the cast also got additional boost because of the trilogy.

* TheDanza: Creator/ElizabethBanks as Elizabeth "Betty" Brant.

** There had been numerous attempts at making the trilogy a part of a SharedUniverse of some kind in the past. The first attempt occurred during production of the original movie, as it was planned for Creator/HughJackman to make a cameo as [[Film/XMenFilmSeries Wolverine]] in the film, but said attempt fell apart at the last minute due to the film crew being unable to locate his X-Men costume. Later on, Sony considered making a crossover film between ''Spider-Man'' and ''Film/GhostRider'', but decided against it due to the performance of the latter film. Finally, sometime around 2007, there had been two attempts that, had they succeeded, would've made the trilogy a part of the ''Film/MarvelCinematicUniverse''. One of the drafts for ''Film/IronMan'' mentioned that Tony Stark had some degree of involvement in the creation of Otto Octavius' robotic tentacles, and Tobey Maguire was planned to cameo as Peter Parker in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Due to Creator/MarvelStudios and Sony being unable to come to an agreement, both attempts fell through.

** The ''Spider-Man 3'' games, are a bit more complicated. Whilst the [=PS3=]/Xbox 360[=/=]PC version is considered a decent-to-average game that doesn't improve upon it's predecessor, the [=PS2=]/Wii version is considered a widely inferior game that took several steps back from ''Spider-Man 2''.

** When Cannon Films attempted to develop the film in the mid-'80s, they hired Leslie Stevens to write the script, who had very little understanding of who Spider-Man was. As a result, the draft he had turned in was a film that would've been the ultimate InNameOnly adaptation, as it was written as a BodyHorror movie that would've depicted Peter Parker as an ID badge photographer that gets exposed to a heavy amount of radiation by a MadScientist and is transformed into a grotesque eight-armed monster. The mad scientist would've attempted to make Peter a part of an army of mutant monsters that he had created, but Peter refuses and battles the mutant army and, at the end of the film, he and the scientist would've been killed in an explosion. As a cherry on top, this film would've been directed by Tobe Hooper (of ''[[Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre]]'' and ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'' fame).

* ExecutiveMeddling: Raimi had initially had no intention of using Venom since he felt the movies he was making did not have the right tone for the symbiotes, but Sony convinced him otherwise.

* DawsonCasting: In the first film, 20 year old Creator/KirstenDunst and 27 year old Creator/TobeyMaguire play high schoolers.
* DevelopmentGag: The second film has a couple of playful jabs at Tobey Maguire's back problems, which nearly forced him to drop out. This includes the "I'm back, I'm back! ...My back, my back!" scene, and a FreezeFrameBonus Bugle headline claiming link between back pain and brain shrinkage.

** Dunst (it was a wig in the first film, but she liked the look so the sequels are literal cases). Interesting considering Dunst is a blonde playing a redhead, and Creator/BryceDallasHoward is a redhead playing a blonde.

** ''Spider-Man 2'': Creator/AlfredMolina, who plays Doctor Octopus, is from London. When he says the line, "I should've known Osborn wouldn't have the spine to finish you!", [[OohMeAccentsSlipping his voice slips a bit.]]

** Sam's Raimi's daughter (the little girl with the camera who sells it to JJ) in ''3''.

** Creator/AliciaWitt, Tara Reid, and Creator/ElizaDushku all auditioned for the role of Mary Jane. Creator/KateHudson was the initial choice but she turned down the role.

*** Peter would've gotten his powers back by [[{{Gorn}} taking a knife and pliers and digging the chip out.]]

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** [[Creator/BruceCampbell Ash]] from ''Franchise/EvilDead'' ended up naming Spider-Man, defeating him, and then teaming up with him over the the course of the trilogy.
** [[Series/TheCloser Chief Pope]], [[Series/{{Oz}} Schillinger]], and [[Series/LawAndOrder Emil Skoda]] is J. Jonah Jameson. Yes, all three. At once.
** [[Film/TrickRTreat Principal]] [[Creator/DylanBaker Wilkins]] as Dr. Curt Connors.
** [[Series/SeaQuestDSV O'Neill]] as Hoffman. Helps that he's the director's kid brother--and funny as all get-out.
** And [[PropRecycling Sam Raimi's car.]]
** Venom is [[Series/That70sShow Eric Forman]].
* HeyItsThatVoice:
** In Italian, Mary Jane is [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Azula]], while Spider-Man (like his German voice actor) is [[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Ron Stoppable]].
** And after portraying him in the films, [[VideoGame/{{Portal2}} Cave Johnson]]/[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Tenzin]] returns to voice J. Jonah Jameson.
** Japanese-wise, Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa ([[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Kyosuke Nanbu]]) as Venom. It's pretty ironic considering that years before, he dubbed Spidey himself in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''.

* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Creator/TobeyMaguire reprises the role of Spider-Man in all three games.
** Creator/BruceCampbell narrated all three games.
** For the first game:
*** In the first game, Willem Dafoe reprises his role as the Green Goblin.
*** Creator/JoshKeaton filled in for James Franco as Harry Osborn.
*** Peter Lurie ([[WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen Sabretooth]], [[Anime/TheBigO Dan Dastun]]) fills in for Ron Perkins as Mendell Stromm and on the XBox version, he also vocies Kraven.
*** Creator/DwightSchultz is the Vulture.
*** Michael Beattie ([[WesternAnimation/ConanTheAdventurer Needle]], [[Film/CatsAndDogs Angus MacDougall]]) is the Shocker.
** For the second game, see [[Trivia/SpiderMan2 see here]].
** For the third game:
*** James Franco, Creator/JKSimmons, Thomas Haden Chruch, and Topher Grace reprise their repsective roles as Harry Osborn/New Goblin, J. Jonah Jameson, Sandman, and Venom.
*** Creator/KariWahlgren stands in for Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane.
*** Neil Ross ([[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie Springer]], [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries another Green Goblin]]) is Luke Carlyle.
*** Creator/NeilKaplan [[TheOtherDarrin takes over]] from Peter Lurie as Kraven.
*** Creator/VanessaMarshall is Jean [=DeWolff=].
*** Creator/DeeBradleyBaker [[TheOtherDarrin replaces]] Mike [=McColl=] as the Scorpion.
*** Creator/SteveBlum replaces JohnDiMaggio as the Rhino.
*** Bob Joles ([[Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise X-Brawn]], [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom Frostbite]]) is ComicBook/TheKingpin.
*** Sean Donnellan ([[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold Elongated Man, Steve Trevor]]) is Morbius.
*** Couetenay Taylor ([[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 Ada Wong]]) is Shriek.
*** Creator/NikaFutterman is [[GenderFlip Dr. Stillwell]].
*** Nathan Carlson ([[WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi Vlad, Mitch]]) is the Lizard, replacing Joe Alaskey.

* TheOtherDarrin: Generally averted with Spider-Man, the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus, as the games saw Creator/TobeyMaguire, Creator/WillemDafoe, and Creator/AlfredMolina reprise the roles, but there are still some roles in the films that were recast for the games...
** Cat O'Conner and Creator/KariWahlgren replace Creator/KirstenDunst as Mary Jane the first and third games respectively, with Dunst only reprising the role in the second game.