History Trivia / SpiderMan3

* DeletedScene: Nearly all of which are present in the {{novelization}}.

** The film was intended to be ''much'' DarkerAndEdgier, but numerous sequences and subplots were removed from the final product. Chief among them were scenes showing Peter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wynfshfw-CM being tempted by the Black Suit]] (and {{Foreshadowing}} that it was sentient by having it ''breathe'' as Peter looked on at it), along with a scene where he looks into a mirror and sees a nightmarish vision of himself as a monster. Another excised subplot had to do with Flint's daughter, who he would visit in a park in the shape of a sandcastle. Flint would learn during the finale that his daughter's illness is terminal and she begs him to spare Spider-Man, as she wants to die knowing that her father is a good man. Multiple participants in the production confirmed that the script was tweaked numerous times throughout filming.

** Even an alternate cut of the film ran into problems. The Editor's Cut (reportedly created by Bob Murawski to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the film in 2017) was done primarily to restore Young's original score, as well as adding additional scenes (including one that shows the Black Suit ''breathing'' as Peter looks at it in his apartment, as well as the "sandcastle" scene with Sandman and his daughter at the park), but it ran into its own issues when it was released unannounced, first by someone at Sony unintentionally leaking it on Amazon (where it could be streamed) then as an unlisted extra on the U.S. Limited Edition boxset.

** Music/DannyElfman originally had no intent on returning to the franchise due to difficulties working with Raimi during production of the previous film. Christopher Young (who contributed themes for ''2'') was brought in to create the entire soundtrack, but this was changed after Young reportedly wrote a love theme that the producers didn't like, forcing the latter to bring Elfman back into the fold to aid with development of the score. This, in addition to musicians John Debney and Deborah Lurie being brought in to reportedly rewrite Young's love theme, led to a schizophrenic tone in the film's music.

* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: A truly bizarre example. Creator/TopherGrace was cast because he resembled an "anti-Peter", and looks like he could be Creator/TobneyMaguire's EvilTwin, but there's no relation between Peter & Eddie in the film.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Lizard/Kraven subplot was originally meant for [[VideoGame/SpiderMan2 the previous game]], but was cut. The only remnants that survived in ''2'' were the lizardmen and Calypso appearing as bonus enemies in a fight arena, and unused voice lines from Spidey discussing the events.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/TopherGrace plays the JerkAss villain Eddie Brock/Venom. Prior to this movie, he was famous for his many years of playing the nerdy NiceGuy Eric Forman in Series/That70sShow. How convincing his performance as a villain [[WTHCastingAgency is another topic altogether]].

** Creator/KirstenDunst only agreed to reprise her role in the third film on the condition that Mary Jane would not end up as the DamselInDistress. Executives agreed. MJ was originally going to have a more proactive role in the film's climax (Gwen was going to be the damsel while MJ would be the one to talk Harry into helping and forgiving Peter; her lines from this scene remained in the trailer). When the plans changed, they made sure MJ was an ActionSurvivor during this particular distress as means of making it up to an upset Dunst. Throwing a cinderblock at Venom was [[ThrowItIn thrown in]], they let her jump and swing on hanging webs herself before needing to ultimately get saved, and any of MJ's screams during the scene (Peter's too, for that matter) were recycled audio. On the audio commentary, Raimi tells a rough story of coming to the process that in order to finish the movie on time due to Bryce Dallas Howard's pregnecy, they had to put MJ in danger, which not only angered himself for reneging on his promise to Dunst before production started that he wouldn't, but that summoning the courage to tell her was one of the hardest things he's ever done in his long time in the business.

** Creator/Topher Grace packed on muscle and complained about constantly having to eat to maintain his body mass and having to keep his hair dyed blonde for a year.

** Topher Grace packed on muscle and complained about constantly having to eat to maintain his body mass and having to keep his hair dyed blonde for a year.

** Creator/KirstenDunst only agreed to reprise her role in the third film on the condition that Mary Jane would not end up as the DamselInDistress. [[BlatantLies Executives agreed]]. MJ was originally going to have a more proactive role in the film's climax (Gwen was going to be the damsel while MJ would be the one to talk Harry into helping and forgiving Peter; her lines from this scene remained in the trailer). When the plans changed, they made sure MJ was an ActionSurvivor during this particular distress as means of making it up to an upset Dunst. Throwing a cinderblock at Venom was [[ThrowItIn thrown in]], they let her jump and swing on hanging webs herself before needing to ultimately get saved, and any of MJ's screams during the scene (Peter's too, for that matter) were recycled audio. On the audio commentary, Raimi tells a rough story of coming to the process that in order to finish the movie on time due to Bryce Dallas Howard's pregnecy, they had to put MJ in danger, which not only angered himself for reneging on his promise to Dunst before production started that he wouldn't, but that summoning the courage to tell her was one of the hardest things he's ever done in his long time in the business.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/SamRaimi [[http://collider.com/spider-man-3-sam-raimi/ called the film awful]] and stated: "I tried to make it work, but I didn't really believe in all the characters, so that couldn't be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man." Producer Avi Arad [[https://screenrant.com/spider-man-3-venom-bad-blame-avi-arad/ apologized]] for forcing Raimi to put Venom in the film. Raimi also really hated the ExecutiveMeddling that forced him to have Mary Jane simply be a DamselInDistress yet again, after he'd promised Kirsten Dunst it wouldn't happen. Raimi's experiences with the film were so awful that he decided to stay away from directing superhero films for over a decade, only returning to the genre after being offered the director's chair for ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' in 2021.

* CreatorsPest: Creator/SamRaimi disliked ComicBook/{{Venom}}, but was forced into including him in the film by way of Avi Arad because he wanted to attract modern Spider-Man fans. All the unpopular changes made to his character have been described as a result of this.

** A scene with Eddie Brock coming to the Stacy family's front porch and begging Gwen to take him back only to be rebuked was actually filmed but not included in the final version, mainly since it connects with Gwen being Venom's kidnapping victim in the end, which was also cut.

** MJ gives a forgiveness speech in the film, which was supposed to be for Harry to help Spider-Man in the final battle, but it was cut. However, her lines can be heard in a few trailers.

** Creator/KirstenDunst only agreed to reprise her role in the third film on the condition that Mary Jane would not end up as the DamselInDistress. [[BlatantLies Executives agreed]]. MJ was originally going to have a more proactive role in the film's climax (Gwen was going to be the damsel while MJ would be the one to talk Harry into helping and forgiving Peter; her lines from this scene remained in the trailer). When the plans changed, they made sure MJ was an ActionSurvivor during this particular distress as means of making it up to an upset Dunst. Throwing a cinderblock at Venom was [[ThrowItIn thrown in]], they let her jump and swing on hanging webs herself before needing to ultimately get saved, and any of MJ's screams during the scene (Peter's too, for that matter) were recycled audio. On the audio commentary, Raimi tells a rough story of coming to the process that in order to finish the movie on time, they had to put MJ in danger, which not only angered himself for reneging on his promise to Dunst before production started that he wouldn't, but that summoning the courage to tell her was one of the hardest things he's ever done in his long time in the business.

** Rumors after the film's release (and mention in the retrospective by Midnight's Edge) suggest that Raimi hired Topher Grace to play Eddie Brock out of spite towards Arad, while the latter reportedly wanted Venom in the film in order to setup a spinoff (he would get his wish, in a roundabout way, more than a decade later with the release of the standalone ''Film/Venom2018'', which is set in a different continuity). In addition, Arad and the producers pressured Raimi to shoehorn in the Gwen Stacy character, and there was so much material on the drawing board that scriptwriter Alvin Sargent planned out scripts for an additional film after ''3'' in order to resolve all the subplots. Years later, Raimi would say in interviews that it was his fault for not keeping the various subplots trimmed down and in focus, and that he didn't believe in all the characters.
** Creator/KirstenDunst only came back to the franchise on the condition that she would ''not'' be treated as a DamselInDistress again, much like her involvement in the third act of both prior films, and after being told that Gwen would be taken hostage by Eddie[=/=]Venom during the climax (Mary Jane's role would be to convince Harry to help Peter during the final battle). The producers reportedly [[BlatantLies promised her this wouldn't be the case]], but changed their minds afterward. They had to mollify Dunst (who was, understandably, upset at the change) by making MJ into more of an ActionSurvivor, via giving her more to do (throwing a cinder block at Venom's head, for example) and swinging on hanging webs on her own, yet a number of screaming sounds she makes were overdubbed onto the scene after filming was completed. In the audio commentary for the film's DVD release, Raimi says that he had to create a setpiece to put the character in danger in order to get the project completed on-time, and that he was not only angry at himself for having to renege on his promises to Dunst, but that telling her about the changes was one of the hardest things he ever had to do as a director.

* WriterRevolt: Sam Raimi is ''[[CreatorsPest not]]'' a fan of Venom, and has gone on record as saying that he dislikes the character's "lack of humanity." This is the reason for the movie's [[TakeThatAudience unflattering]] portrayal of the character.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/ThomasHadenChurch signed on without reading the script.

* DeletedScene: Nearly all of which are present in the novelization.
** The movie was originally going start with a boy imitating his hero Spider-Man as his mother retrieve him from the rope he was swinging from in Central Park.

** Several shots of the ceremony for Spider-Man was shot but cut from the film.

** According to the {{novelization}}, Flint Marko talked to a doctor for his daughter Penny. The doctor, Phil Wallace, asked for more money to cure Penny which leads him to steal money which leads to the subway fight.

** Later on, an extra shot in the subway fight with Sandman, Spider-Man beating him mercifully until he was defeated.

** Part of the scene where Peter looks at his reflection in a mirror after returning to his apartment after seemingly killing the Sandman was cut. The cut segment would have shown Peter looking down at the Black Suit under his clothes, then looking up to see his reflection as Venom, which explains him locking the Black Suit away immediately afterwards with an alarmed expression on his face. The Venom model that was used harkened back to the character's original appearance, without fangs or distorted eyes.
** After exposing Eddie for faking his photos, Spider-Man in his black suit swings across New York City in daylight, then put it away his suitcase.
** There are some extra lines said by Norman such as "Why haven't you killed Peter Parker?" and "He took me away from you?", including an extra scene from Harry's hallucination.

** In a quite comical scene after Eddie is fired, when Betty Brant tries to calm Jameson with chimes. The scene was filmed, however it was only shown in a blooper of the film and not in the final cut.
** A scene with Eddie Brock coming to the Stacy family's front porch and begging Gwen to take him back only to be rebuked was actually filmed but not included in the final version, mainly since it connects with Gwen being the kidnapping victim in the end, which was also cut.

** MJ gives a forgiveness speech in the film but was cut, however her lines can be heard in a few trailers.

** Dr. Wallace brings Flint Marko's family to the Final Battle to convince Flint to not kill Spider-Man and tell him that Penny can't be cured. At Penny's urging, Peter forgives Flint after he explains Uncle Ben's death.

** The film was going to end on a final swing but it can assume for budget reasons this had to be cut. A couple of these unfinished shots were from the leaked trailer but never shown in the final cut.
** Creator/WillemDafoe filmed several scenes as Comicbook/NormanOsborn in Harry's hallucination, but in the final movie only has ''one.''

* DeletedRole: An entire character was scrapped from the final cut. [[Series/{{Hustle}} Adrian Lester]] would've portrayed a doctor whom Marko strong-arms into helping find a cure for his daughter, ended up on the cutting room floor, even though he had evidently filmed several scenes.
* DeletedScene:

** An extended scenes of Spider-Man and Sandman fighting were shot, showing the aftermath and different positioned scenes.

** There are some extra shots of Eddie Brock photographing black suited Spidey.

** After exposing Eddie for faking his photos, Spider-Man in his black suit was swinging across New York City in daylight then put it away his suitcase.

** In a quite comical scene after Eddie is fired, when Betty Brant tries to calm Jameson with chimes. The scene was filmed however it was only shown in a blooper of the film and not in the final cut.
** A scene with Eddie Brock coming to the Stacy's front porch and begging Gwen to take him back was actually filmed but not included in the final version, mainly since it connects with Gwen being the kidnap victim in the end, which was also cut.

** Penny and her mother are sitting at a bench and getting ready to leave, Flint was disguised as a sand castle in order to meet his daughter but was cut from the film.

** Dr. Wallace sees Flint Marko's family and convince Flint to not kill Spider-Man and tell Flint that Penny can't be cured. Then Flint explains Uncle Ben's death.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/ElishaCuthbert and Creator/ScarlettJohansson were considered for the role of ComicBook/GwenStacy before Creator/BryceDallasHoward was cast. Johansson would eventually go on to portray [[ComicBook/BlackWidow Natasha Romanoff]] in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse and meet a [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar different incarnation of]] [[Creator/TomHolland Peter Parker]].
** Creator/WillemDafoe filmed several scenes as Comicbook/NormanOsborn in Harry's hallucination, but in the final movie only has one.
** Around this time, Creator/ElizabethBanks was reportedly considered to play the ComicBook/InvisibleWoman in ''{{Film/Fantastic Four|2005}}'' and ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer''. Had this happened, Sony would have considered casting [[TheOtherDarrin a different actress]] to replace Banks as Betty Brant.
** The Vulture, who would've been played by Creator/BenKingsley, was originally going to be one of the main antagonists in the film and would play the FinalBoss role that ComicBook/{{Venom}} ended up playing. He was ultimately scrapped since his role had no meaningful or personal connection to the hero at all, he was merely Flint Marko's cellmate who hated Spider-Man for putting him in jail to begin with, which likely means any scene involving the symbiote would've been substituted with Spidey battling against Vulture early in the film, likely sometime before Marko became Sandman.
** An entire character was scrapped from the final cut. [[Series/{{Hustle}} Adrian Lester]] would've portrayed a doctor whom Marko strong-arms into helping find a cure for his daughter, ended up on the cutting room floor, even though he had evidently filmed several scenes.
** Spider-Man's symbiote suit was originally going to look identical to the one in the comics, being made of black latex. However, Creator/SamRaimi thought it looked too much like a gimp suit and opted to go with a black and silver version of Spider-Man's original costume.
** In the first trailers revealing his presence in the movie, Venom looked a lot more similar to his classic comic book portrayal, but was later changed to match his appearance in the film.
** Neither Venom nor Gwen Stacy were present in the original planning packet, with a random woman serving the role Gwen later took.
** Also, ''Gwen'' was originally going to be kidnapped for the final battle, not Mary Jane; Mary Jane would have talked sense into Harry instead of Harry's butler. A line Mary Jane said for this scene was actually used in the trailer: "We've all done terrible things to each other, but we have to learn to forgive each other or else everything we ever were will have meant nothing."
** A scene with Eddie Brock coming to the Stacy's front porch and begging Gwen to take him back was actually filmed but not included in the final version, mainly since it connects with Gwen being the kidnap victim in the end, which was also cut.
** The scene where Marko meets Eddie was quite different from the "90's Batman" villain team-up that was shown. After seeing Flint pretending to be sand in a park's playground for his little girl to play on, Eddie comes up and talks to him, and convinces him that his girl may be cured yet, and he will help him get the cash if Flint helps him take on Spider-Man. Images of this park scene being filmed actually exist. This, followed by him learning from his daughter that she is irrevocably sick and just wants to die with her dad a good man, makes his HeelFaceTurn at the end, and Peter forgiving him, much more credible and poignant. These scenes most likely ''were'' considered, at least somewhere along the line - they were, after all, used in the Creator/PeterDavid novelisation in lieu of what the movie actually gave us. Though the novelisation presents Peter and Flint making amends partway through the battle, while the film shows it ''after'' Venom is defeated, and it's really up to the audience to decide which is better (since stopping a big climactic action sequence so that characters can clear things up is pretty hard to pull off in a film). Both exist in some form, at least.
** It is also rumored that John Jameson was originally to have an appearance, unknowingly bringing the symbiote back from his astronaut mission like he has in two [[WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries other]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan adaptations]].
** It is also rumored that J. Jonah Jameson hired Eddie Brock to spy on Peter, after MJ left his son at the altar.
** Eddie Brock's death was originally different than in the end product, where he was blown up by a pumpkin bomb while trying to rebond to the Venom symbiote. Originally, Peter was going to impale Venom on a metal blade, only to watch in horror as the symbiote sloughed away and revealed it had consumed its host -- leaving only a skeleton with glaring eye-sockets and fanged teeth behind.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SpiderMan Enough for its own page]]