See John Malkovich’s Vulture Costume For Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 4

By James Brizuela | Published

john malkovich in the line of fire

Back before Sam Raimi decided to retire from the world of superhero movies, he was set to direct Spider-Man 4, which could have bought in John Malkovich as Vulture, serving as the main antagonist for Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker. The sequel clearly never happened, but a comic artist by the name of Ken Penders decided to bless Twitter with an image he has held for 15 years, which is from the artists who worked on the costume for Malkovich. Malkovich would have likely looked amazing in the costume, which you can see in the image below:

One thing of note is that the proposed costume is that it is a much darker color than the one we have seen in Michael Keaton’s Vulture from the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies. It appears that the Spider-Man 4 movie would have bought in a possibly darker version for John Malkovich to face off against Tobey Maguire. Granted, the costume could not have been at the stage where it is painted green, but a black-winged Vulture would have been amazing to see.

Just the idea that John Malkovich and Tobey Maguire were meant to face off in Spider-Man 4 is something that will make fans across the world upset, as that would have been quite a pairing. It would have been especially better than the horrible portrayal of Venom in Spider-Man 3. No offense to Topher Grace, but we all know that is one of the biggest reasons why Maguire’s Spider-Man franchise died after the third movie.

John Malkovich is also a stellar actor, and his passion and acting ability would have benefited Tobey Maguire, as he shares the same level of dramatic prowess. Michael Keaton has been the only person to take on the live-action version of Adrian Toomes aka Vulture, as he has appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Morbius. However, considering that he is basically a full-fledged MCU villain, we might be seeing him reprise that role in later Marvel movies.

With Marvel concerned with the multiverse, we might be treated to another timeline version of Toomes in John Malkovich, who could then face off with Tobey Maguire, should he also return to Marvel. Avengers: Secret Wars is set to happen in 2025, and the story involves bringing in many timeline versions of each character. If all three Spider-Man actors can return, we could have all the prosed villains return as well, including the failed appearances like Malkovich.

The John Malkovich costume does look spectacular, and it would have been wonderful to see him flying around with Tobey Maguire yanking away with his webs. Though we are likely to never see that happen, at least we were gifted an image of what could have been. However, Sam Raimi has returned to the superhero genre, as he directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Should Sam Raimi be given back the keys to Spider-Man, and he decides to return to some past ideas, we could see John Malkovich and Tobey Maguire face off in the MCU multiverse. Crazier things have happened.