No, seriously, Sam Raimi “not actually working” on Spider-Man 4

Another April Fools’ Day is nearly in the bag, with various brands doing their damndest to turn their customers into morons. “We want 7/11’s Big Bite Hot Dog Sparking Water,” the furious Frankfurter fans cry as the convenience chain dashes their hopes with two words: “April fools.” One joker who’s not letting April Fool’s jokes go too far is director Sam Raimi, who, for roughly the last 15 years, has been the subject of rumors and gossip over whether or not he’s making a fourth Spider-Man movie. In short: No one’s asked him to.

Speaking to Comic Book Resources at WonderCon over the weekend, Raimi admitted he hadn’t “heard about” another sequel starring Tobey Maguire’s webhead from either Columbia or Marvel. He did read the rumors, though, and shut them down by saying he’s “not actually working on it yet.” We can only imagine how much he regrets adding that “yet.”

His logic is pretty sound, too. Raimi argues that Marvel and Columbia have been so successful with their animated and live-action Spider-Man adventures that it seems unlikely that “they’re going to go back to [him] and say, ‘Well, folks, we can also tell that story!’” Raimi, who charmingly reminds the CBR that he “just worked with Marvel on a movie called Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness” and remains on “great terms” with the studio, says that he’s sure he “would hear about it if it was in the works.”

“I love all the new Spider-Man movies,” Raimi says. “I loved Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was really, super powerful seeing Tobey [Maguire] again in it[…]I haven’t talked to Tobey about [a fourth movie with me], but maybe Marvel has or Columbia Pictures.”

So there you have it, true believers. Another dastardly rumor squashed by the sensational Sam Raimi. As much as everyone wants pictures of Spider-Man, they can’t just be willed into being. Check in next time when the rumor mill churns out more Spider-Man 4 gossip. Excelsior!