Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is a mixed bag. I personally thought the first and second movies were good and great but after some studio interference and a pretty awful Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi’s place at the helm of the Spider-Man franchise was no more. But it seems development for a planned Spider-Man 4 went far enough along for illustrator Jeffrey Henderson to make concept art for what was being planned for the sequel. He recently wrote a blog post sharing his feelings about the cancelled project and showing off as much of the artwork as he could “without pissing Sam off.”

Ahhh, Spider-Man 4. Of all the projects I’ve worked on, I get asked about this more often than anything else.

I hope that one day I can, (or somebody can), finally tell the whole story of Sam Raimi’s ‘abandoned’ fourth Spidey movie.

Until then, out of respect for Sam, (and fear that he’d send Bruce Campbell to come after me with a chainsaw…), and everyone that worked on, or contributed to, this project, let me just say this:

It would’ve been one absolutely kick ass movie. Seriously. We were working on some crazy- cool stuff, because everyone, from top to bottom, felt that Spidey 3 was a bit of a ‘missed opportunity’, and we all really wanted to help Sam take SM4 to another level so he could end the series on a high note.

It looks like Vulture and Mysterio would have been the main villains for the film. The art shows off Vulture in a few scenes that look like they would have made up the majority of the action of the film while Mysterio is shown being handed over to police.

Coincidentally, Michael Keaton has been cast in the first solo Spider-Man film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’s rumored that he will be playing Vulture in the film. That would be a nice turnaround for the character; from main villain of a sequel that never was to (if the rumor is true) the main villain in what is sure to be another monster hit for Marvel.

Check out Henderson’s concept art below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.