History WhatCouldHaveBeen / SpiderMan

* While Hooper was still slated to direct the project, Ted Newsome and John Brancado wrote a script that was truer to the comics and even received Stan Lee's stamp of approval. The story would have followed a college age Peter Parker who works as a photographer for the tabloid newspaper the Daily Bugle, after his Professor, Otto Octavius (slated for Creator/BobHoskins) as Doc Octopus causes an explosion while conducting his experiments with the schools cyclotron, Peter gets bitten by the spider while taking pictures of the wreckage. Afterwards most of the familiar point's of Spider-Man's origin would pan out while Doc Ock works to build a new cyclotron to finish his experiments, which Peter needs to stop as it threatens to destroy the city if not the world. The script included Liz Allan as Peter's love interest, Flash Thompson, who's characterization veers more towards a Lovable Jock, and Harry Osborn as Peter's nerdy prankster best friend whose antics almost cost him his scholarship. The script also introduced two new characters: Professor Solomon Rosomoff and Alexander Thorkel (created with Hammer Horror icons Creator/ChristopherLee and Creator/PeterCushing in mind), Thorkel would end up being killed by Doctor Octopus while Prof. Rosomoff go on to help Spider-Man thwart the mad doctor's plan, with his last scene ending on the implication that he knows Peter is Spider-Man. It was also during this time that Tobe Hooper left the project to focus on Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre2 and was replaced by Joseph Zito (of ''Film/TheProwler'' fame).

* When the movie got split in two, the writers struggled with where to put the cliffhanger, and originally ended it when Miles is tied to the punching bag and Prowler Miles puts his fist next to him. This was poorly received by test audiences, however, and the decision to show Miles ripping the glove, showing he was planning how to break free, along with Gwen having gathered her team to save him, only got added in the last few months of production to make the cliffhanger more hopeful.

* The following year (1986), Menahem Golan (under his pseudonym Joseph Goldman) wrote his own movie script. Due to concerns of a limited budget, the script ended up being a retelling of ComicBook/AmazingFantasyNumber15 with a heavy dose of AdaptationExpansion: Gwen Stacy appears in the script, serving as the Betty to Liz Allen's Veronica, Peter's character arc involves AquiredSituationalNarcissism from his wrestling career, and the main antagonist is a teenage street thug named Knight, accosts the Parker family before attempting to steal a priceless gem that's being showcased on a talk show that Spider-Man is also being featured on, afterwards he would attack Uncle Ben in his store and end up killing him. After learning about his uncle's death, Peter briefly becomes so enraged he turns into a spider monster (Golan was still under the impression that Spider-Man had a werewolf-like element to him) before going after Knight.

* Creator/TheCannonGroup's numerous projects.
** The first treatment, written by Jim Shooter, was called Spider-Man: Operation Z. The story had Peter, already established as Spider-Man, investigating Kingpin's theft of various chemicals while fighting Kingpin's enforcer [[RoguesGalleryTransplant Bullseye]]. Towards the climax, Kingpin kidnaps Aunt May and Peter's fiancé, Lin, and holds them hostage to keep Spider-Man from interfering with the titular Operation Z, where Kingpin plans to release a chemical weapon on New York City and blackmail the government for the antidote. Bullseye tricks Spider-Man into thinking that Aunt May and Lin have been executed to get Spidey to kill Kingpin in revenge so [[TheStarscream Bullseye can take over]], only for Kingpin to kill Bullseye instead. Spider-Man would then fight Kingpin in a helicopter which would crash into the river with only Spider-Man surfacing.
** The next plan to get a ''Spider-Man'' film off the ground was in 1985, when Creator/TobeHooper was set to direct a film for Creator/TheCannonGroup starring Creator/TomCruise. Due to Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus not understanding the concept, the outline treatment had an original villain named Dr. Zork experimenting on Peter Parker (who would have worked as a company i.d. photographer) and turning him into a BodyHorror-fusion between a spider and a human, who was also suicidal. Zork would have been creating an army of human/animal hybrids and wanted Peter to be their leader. Creator/StanLee immediately [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the concept on the grounds that [[InNameOnly it perverted the entire concept of the character]] (though elements of the story did ultimately see the light of day in the ''Neogenic Nightmare'' arc of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'').
** While Hooper was still slated to direct the project, Ted Newsome and John Brancado wrote a script that was truer to the comics and even received Stan Lee's stamp of approval. The story would have followed a college age Peter Parker who works as a photographer for the tabloid newspaper the Daily Bugle, after his Professor, Otto Octavius (slated for Creator/BobHoskins) as Doc Octopus causes an explosion while conducting his experiments with the schools cyclotron, Peter gets bitten by the spider while taking pictures of the wreckage. Afterwards most of the familiar point's of Spider-Man's origin would pan out while Doc Ock works to build a new cyclotron to finish his experiments, which Peter needs to stop as it threatens to destroy the city if not the world. The script included Liz Allan as Peter's love interest, Flash Thompson, who's characterization veers more towards a Lovable Jock, and Harry Osborn as Peter's nerdy prankster best friend whose antics almost cost him his scholarship. The script also introduced two new characters: Professor Solomon Rosomoff and Alexander Thorkel (created with Hammer Horror icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in mind), thorkel would end up being killed by Doctor Octopus while Prof. Rosomoff go on to help Spider-Man thwart the mad doctor's plan, with his last scene ending on the implication that he knows Peter is Spider-Man.

** The following year (1986), director Creator/AlbertPyun was then hired to direct the film for Cannon, after the initial choice following Hooper, Joseph Zito (of ''Film/TheProwler'' fame), walked out. Scott Leva was hired to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and although no one else was officially cast, the studio considered Creator/BobHoskins for Doctor Octopus, Creator/PeterCushing and Creator/AdolphCaesar for smaller roles, and most notably Creator/KatharineHepburn or Creator/LaurenBacall for Aunt May. On top of all that, Creator/StanLee himself wanted to play J. Jonah Jameson. Filming was set to take place at Dino De Laurentiis' studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. With a $6 million budget, the Brooklyn sets were built for the film on the Wilmington stages, a teaser trailer was released (though too late to remove Zito's name that was infamously heard in said trailer) and publicity photos of Leva as the character were taken. Pyun had originally planned to film two weeks worth of scenes for ''Spider-Man'' before Leva's nerdy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, then Leva would undergo a supervised eight-week workout regimen to build muscle mass while director Pyun would film ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse Part 2'', and filming for ''Spider-Man'' would resume for the scenes after Peter gets his spider powers. However, both projects were scrapped due to Cannon's stretched-thin finances. Albert Pyun was then given the task to make a movie out of the 2 million-worth of costumes and sets already built for both projects, came up with a script on a single weekend, and 24 days of rushed filming and editing later, the cult-classic Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme starring ''Film/{{Cyborg|1989}}'' was released. The head honchos at Cannon had a major case of ComicallyMissingThePoint when their revised script centered around Peter Parker getting roped into a villainous plot by Octavius to find the secret of anti-gravity. Various rewrites went nowhere, and despite another attempt by Cannon to finance another script in 1989 (in actuality, it was just the 1985 script with a revised date), nothing ever occurred and the production rights were eventually licensed to Creator/CarolcoPictures, which led to...

* Ultimately, Cameron's attempt never made it not only because of Carolco's own financial problems, but also because of a [[ScrewedByTheLawyers large legal battle]] between Creator/{{MGM}} (which had merged with Cannon and claimed they had the rights), Marvel (then in the midst of their mid-90s bankruptcy and a subsequent fight for control by various consortiums) and a couple other claimants (including Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, who were holding Cameron to a contract he'd signed with them). Ultimately, MGM and Sony made a trade -- Sony got the ''Spider-Man'' rights from MGM, and in exchange, Sony wouldn't attempt [[DuelingWorks their own rival]] Franchise/JamesBond movies by way of Kevin [=McClory=] (who was again trying to remake ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'' like with ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'').

** The Newsom/Brancado script would be revised a few times before being shelved. Some added elements would include giving Doc Ock a catchphrase ("Okey dokey then"), having his tentacles be called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator "waldos"]] in the script and giving him a sidekick in the form lab assistant named Weiner that he constantly insulted throughout the movie and who would have been responsible for Uncle Ben's death. Other elements added to the plot included a planetary alignment and Doctor Octopus trying to steal Peter's physics paper to complete his experiment.

** The next plan to get a ''Spider-Man'' film off the ground was in 1985, when Creator/TobeHooper was set to direct a film for Creator/TheCannonGroup starring Creator/TomCruise. Due to Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus not understanding the concept, the original script treatment had an original villain named Dr. Zork experimenting on Peter Parker (who would have worked as a company i.d. photographer) and turning him into a BodyHorror-fusion between a spider and a human, who was also suicidal. Zork would have been creating an army of human/animal hybrids wanted Peter to be their leader. Creator/StanLee immediately [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the concept on the grounds that [[InNameOnly it perverted the entire concept of the character]] (though elements of the story did ultimately see the light of day in the ''Neogenic Nightmare'' arc of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'').

** Cameron also rewrote a draft in 1993 that would have featured Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger as Doc Octopus (or "Professor" Octopus). His catchphrase would have been "Okey dokey then", and he would've insisted his tentacles be called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator "waldos"]]. He would have also had a lab assistant named Weiner that he constantly insulted throughout the movie, and he would have been bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter. The plot would have revolved around him trying to steal Peter's physics paper.

* David Michelinie said in interviews that his initial idea for Venom was that she would be a woman who lost her child as a result of collateral damage in a Spider-Man battle. He foreshadowed and built up Venom's appearance in ''Web of Spider-Man'' with this in mind and initially he saw Venom as a minor character. However, when he had gotten the post as head-writer on ASM, the flagship title and when planning out the milestone issue of #300 he pitched Venom's debut and he very quickly changed the character to Eddie Brock. Michelinie also said that towards the end of his run he had a plan for a year long arc where Peter Parker revealed his identity to the public. This would have been temporary and reversed. It would have involved villains, and other bad guys targeting him and his family, and then Peter would turn to the government for help, and basically be drafted as a mercenary doing shady things to protect his family and that eventually Peter would turn to the help of the Purple Man to erase the memories of his secret identity via world healing mind-wipe (similar to Michelinie's ''Emperor Doom'' graphic novel where Dr. Doom attached Purple Man to a power amplifier that made the rest of the world accept Dr. Doom as the new lord and master). The idea was rejected by editors as straining credibility that Peter's identity could simply be reset like that but in broad-strokes ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' could have happened before.

** Earth 42 Miles was going to have a bigger role instead of simply showing up at the end, but as the movies were split in two, his part of the story had to be saved for ''Beyond''.

* Another deleted scene had Gwen not only talking to Jess's hologram, but Miguel and other members of the Spider-society's as well after Spot had escaped and Miles was following her while invisible. Miles would have eavesdropped on her talking to Miguel and eventually shown himself to their surprise, directly asking Miguel's hologram why he couldn't be part of the society and being rejected. He and Gwen would talk directly with Gwen telling Miles she had no choice in doing what Miguel ordered and that Miles had a better thing going with his parents than she did in the society anyway. This version also appears to not have included Gwen and Miles' swing around the city as Miles reveals his suit to Miguel and Gwen refers to it as if she hadn't seen it before.

* Creator/WillemDafoe filmed several scenes as Comicbook/NormanOsborn in Harry's hallucination, but in the final movie only has one.[[note]]Contrary to the belief of some viewers, the flashback of Harry cradling Norman's body was not shot for ''this'' film, but was archive (unused) footage from ''Film/SpiderMan1''.[[/note]]

[[WMG: Comics]]

[[WMG: Films]]

[[WMG: Animated Films]]

[[WMG: Miscellaneous]]

[[folder:Other Assorted Trivia]]

* The next plan to get a ''Spider-Man'' film off the ground was in 1985, when Creator/TobeHooper was set to direct a film for Creator/TheCannonGroup starring Creator/TomCruise. Due to Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus not understanding the concept, the original script treatment had an original villain named Dr. Zork experimenting on Peter Parker (who would have worked as a company i.d. photographer) and turning him into a BodyHorror-fusion between a spider and a human, who was also suicidal. Zork would have been creating an army of human/animal hybrids wanted Peter to be their leader. Creator/StanLee immediately [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the concept on the grounds that [[InNameOnly it perverted the entire concept of the character]] (though elements of the story did ultimately see the light of day in the ''Neogenic Nightmare'' arc of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'').
* The following year (1986), director Creator/AlbertPyun was then hired to direct the film for Cannon, after the initial choice following Hooper, Joseph Zito (of ''Film/TheProwler'' fame), walked out. Scott Leva was hired to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and although no one else was officially cast, the studio considered Creator/BobHoskins for Doctor Octopus, Creator/PeterCushing and Creator/AdolphCaesar for smaller roles, and most notably Creator/KatharineHepburn or Creator/LaurenBacall for Aunt May. On top of all that, Creator/StanLee himself wanted to play J. Jonah Jameson. Filming was set to take place at Dino De Laurentiis' studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. With a $6 million budget, the Brooklyn sets were built for the film on the Wilmington stages, a teaser trailer was released (though too late to remove Zito's name that was infamously heard in said trailer) and publicity photos of Leva as the character were taken. Pyun had originally planned to film two weeks worth of scenes for ''Spider-Man'' before Leva's nerdy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, then Leva would undergo a supervised eight-week workout regimen to build muscle mass while director Pyun would film ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse Part 2'', and filming for ''Spider-Man'' would resume for the scenes after Peter gets his spider powers. However, both projects were scrapped due to Cannon's stretched-thin finances. Albert Pyun was then given the task to make a movie out of the 2 million-worth of costumes and sets already built for both projects, came up with a script on a single weekend, and 24 days of rushed filming and editing later, the cult-classic Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme starring ''Film/{{Cyborg|1989}}'' was released. The head honchos at Cannon had a major case of ComicallyMissingThePoint when their revised script centered around Peter Parker getting roped into a villainous plot by Octavius to find the secret of anti-gravity. Various rewrites went nowhere, and despite another attempt by Cannon to finance another script in 1989 (in actuality, it was just the 1985 script with a revised date), nothing ever occurred and the production rights were eventually licensed to Creator/CarolcoPictures, which led to...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen/SonysSpiderManUniverse

The number of canceled and scrapped projects and/or elements related to the comics, the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries'' are '''staggering'''.

* Yuhki Demers on Instagram revealed this [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CxI7ql5xw7_/?img_index=1 concept art]] showing that there were plans to include Earth-66 (a prehistoric world populated by dinosaurs)complete with showing T-Rex versions of Miles and Gwen.

** Harry Osborn was originally going to be revealed as the mastermind behind the Clone Saga. The idea was that Gaunt, a mysterious armored villain that had menaced Spider-Man, was actually Harry, whose body had been ravaged and withered by the Goblin serum. Bob Harras vetoed the idea, as he thought Harry was a poor substitute for the real Green Goblin. One could assume this forgotten concept was retooled for Creator/NickSpencer's [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer run]], with Kindred revealed as a demonic magical-duplicate of Harry, embodying his insanity from his tenure as the Goblin, believed to be a [[RememberTheNewGuy late-arriving consequence]] of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''.

* The next plan to get a ''Spider-Man'' film off the ground was in 1985, when Creator/TobeHooper was set to direct a film for Creator/TheCannonGroup starring Creator/TomCruise. Due to Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus not understanding the concept, the original script treatment had Dr. Octopus experimenting on Peter Parker and turning him into a BodyHorror-fusion between a spider and a human, who was also suicidal. Creator/StanLee immediately [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] the concept on the grounds that [[InNameOnly it perverted the entire concept of the character]] (though elements of the story did ultimately see the light of day in the ''Neogenic Nightmare'' arc of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'').

!!''WesternAnimation/SpiderManSpiderVerse''
!!!''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse''

!!!''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse''

* The following year (1986), director Creator/AlbertPyun was then hired to direct the film for Cannon, after the initial choice following Hooper, Joseph Zito (of ''Film/TheProwler'' fame), walked out. Scott Leva was hired to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and although no one else was officially cast, the studio considered Creator/BobHoskins for Doctor Octopus, Creator/PeterCushing and Creator/AdolphCaesar for smaller roles, and most notably Creator/KatharineHepburn or Creator/LaurenBacall for Aunt May. On top of all that, Creator/StanLee himself wanted to play J. Jonah Jameson. Filming was set to take place at De Laurentiis' studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. With a $6 million budget, the Brooklyn sets were built for the film on the Wilmington stages, a teaser trailer was released (though too late to remove Zito's name that was infamously heard in said trailer) and publicity photos of Leva as the character were taken. Pyun had originally planned to film two weeks worth of scenes for ''Spider-Man'' before Leva's nerdy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, then Leva would undergo a supervised eight-week workout regimen to build muscle mass while director Pyun would film ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse Part 2'', and filming for ''Spider-Man'' would resume for the scenes after Peter gets his spider powers. However, both projects were scrapped due to Cannon's stretched-thin finances. Albert Pyun was then given the task to make a movie out of the 2 million-worth of costumes and sets already built for both projects, came up with a script on a single weekend, and 24 days of rushed filming and editing later, the cult-classic Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme starring ''Film/{{Cyborg|1989}}'' was released. The head honchos at Cannon had a major case of ComicallyMissingThePoint when their revised script centered around Peter Parker getting roped into a villainous plot by Octavius to find the secret of anti-gravity. Various rewrites went nowhere, and despite another attempt by Cannon to finance another script in 1989 (in actuality, it was just the 1985 script with a revised date), nothing ever occurred and the production rights were eventually licensed to Creator/CarolcoPictures, which led to...

** Cameron's original screenplay tried to present Peter's growing powers as a metaphor for puberty, complete with him waking up in bed and covered in [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything sticky white webbing.]]
** Cameron had the idea of having Peter use web shooters to focus and disguise his organic webs.

* Creator/JamesCameron's [[Script/JamesCameronsSpiderMan aborted treatment]] for Spider-Man:

* Creator/JamesCameron's aborted treatment for Spider-Man: