While James Cameron is currently making headlines with his work on Avatar: The Way of Water, fans also have a look into what he was planning for Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Cameron is known for his incredible success in blockbuster movie franchises, although he’s largely been absent from the superhero game as Marvel and DC continue to climb to new heights. However, at one point in the mid-1990s, the writer/director had written a script for an R-rated Spider-Man film, for which he was considering casting future Oscar-winner Leonardo Dicaprio for Peter Parker and Arnold Schwarzenegger for Doctor Octopus.
This Spider-Man movie would have provided a darker look into Peter’s origin story after he experiences the classic spider bite, balancing his high school life and superhero responsibilities as every take on Peter Parker must do.
Now, while Cameron celebrates another billion-dollar box-office hit with Avatar 2, a couple of pieces of concept art have circulated online highlighting his ideas for Marvel’s web-slinger 30 years ago.
James Cameron’s Spider-Man Concept Art Surfaces
Two new pieces of concept art from director James Cameron have been circulating online after being shared on social media by SlashFilm’s Chris Evangelista, featuring Cameron’s take on Spider-Man from a canceled solo movie in the 1990s.
The drawings, which Cameron created himself, come from his 2021 book, “Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron.”
Although the details are hard to see, the white eyes of Spider-Man’s mask shine, as his look is replicated fairly accurately from the comics. Some of the webbing on his suit can be seen running down his left arm, as he climbs the side of a New York City building with just a hint of blue seen on his leg.
The same image is replicated with a dark blue hue, making the eyes on Spidey’s mask pop even more prominently against his darker suit. It’s unclear if Peter would have donned a black suit that’s been utilized in the comics and other movies or if this is just a different look at the original image.
While these two images only show a small tease of what Cameron would have done with Marvel’s web-slinger, the idea of seeing a Spider-Man movie under his direction has many wondering what could have been. Particularly with the director’s success on other iconic ’90s blockbusters like Terminator 2 and Titanic, a darker take on Marvel’s most popular hero is something that surely would’ve had fans interested.
This also came during a time when the superhero genre wasn’t anything like what it is today, as Wesley Snipes’ Blade was still a few years from debuting and setting a new standard for comic book movies. However, Cameron has always been one to push the standard for what movies can do from a visual standpoint, which makes the idea of a Spider-Man movie interesting if he could have brought the web-swinging and wall-crawling to life on the big screen.
Now, with three different iterations of Spider-Man having hit theaters in the 21st century, fans can only look back to pieces like this when imagining what Cameron would have done with this more mature Spidey outing. Whether he directs a superhero project in the future is still a mystery, although he’ll always be in conversations with the Marvel side of things due to his box office success alone.
Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters worldwide.
