It's pretty clear that Spider-Man 3 was a scarring experience for all involved. It's considered a textbook case of executive meddling that brought Sam Raimi's trailblazing run with Spider-Man to a screeching halt.
Things are better now. The Spider-verse is alive and well at both Sony and Marvel, and Sam Raimi is currently directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Still, it's pretty clear that Raimi's Spider-Man 3 experience had a big impact on him.
In a interview with Collider, Raimi talked about how hard it was to return to directing superhero films after Spider-Man 3. It was bad enough, he said, that he wasn't sure he could face it again.
"I didn't know that I could face it again because it was so awful, having been the director of Spider-Man 3. The Internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie and they sure let me know about it. So, it was difficult to take back on," Raimi said.
When his agent called him about the opportunity to direct Doctor Strange 2, Raimi found himself wondering if he could do it. "They're really demanding, those types of pictures. And I felt, 'Well, that's reason enough,'" he said.
Raimi went on to praise the character of Doctor Strange, saying he's "right up there with the favorites." He also had kind words for the first movie, saying director Scott Derrickson "did a wonderful job, an incredible job."
"I didn't think I would be doing another superhero movie. it just happened," Raimi said.
First released back in 2007, Spider-Man 3 notoriously crammed in Venom at the last minute, to the movie's detriment. The result was a fairly messy movie, though we liked it at the time, calling it a "great ending for both a standard three-film arc and the best comic book trilogy in film history."
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases on March 25 in 2022. Go here to see read about every upcoming MCU movie and TV show for the rest of 2021.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.