My Take On: Casting Spider-Man 4

For the last few weeks on MTR I have been dis­cussing rumor cast­ing choices for  Spider-Man 4. As of right now it seems that Dylan Baker will finally become The Lizard,but like always it’s never 100% con­crete and as of last week there have been rumors of Black Cat mak­ing her film debut and being played by Rachel McAdams which is good cast­ing in my book. I per­son­ally think that keep­ing the film closer to the books in piv­otal to avoid the deba­cle that was Spidey 3. If  you want to intro­duce char­ac­ters then have a look at my suggestions.

Spidey’s Rogues Gallery

Minor vil­lains ( Didn’t cast)- Should appear at the begin­ning of the films just to show them being caught and give them some screen time.Such as :

• The Shocker
• Bee­tle
• Rhino
• Speed Demon
• Ham­mer­head
• Mys­te­rio

Now regard­ing main antag­o­nists (cuz we know they won’t go back to one)

• Chameleon– A char­ac­ter that while not the most pow­er­ful would make a great sec­ondary vil­lain to work against Spider-Man. I would cast Tim Roth who played Abom­i­na­tion in the Hulk film
• Hydro-Man ( Con­sid­ered a sec­ondary vil­lain but for effects pur­poses can moved up the ladder)-Hydro-Man is a spe­cial effects wet dream (no pun intended).After the excel­lent work in bring­ing the Sand­man to life I wouldn’t mind see­ing him on-screen just to see how they would pull it off. I would cast James Mars­den for the role.
• Kraven The Hunter– Kraven to me is a very well bal­anced foil for Spider-Man since he has no real pow­ers but has keen hunt­ing abil­ity and feels Spidey makes for an excel­lent hunt. In using Kraven you can also use Chameleon as they are broth­ers and even toss in Kraven’s love inter­est Calypso.   Before giv­ing my cast­ing choice I’d rec­om­mend Kraven get a cos­tume update just cause his nor­mal cos­tume is a bit weak . Kraven-Tchéky Karyo or Beni­cio Del Toro and for Calypso-Salli Richardson. The actors I selected not only look close their comic counter parts but have the act­ing chops to give these char­ac­ters depth.
• Lizard– Dylan Baker already well on his way towards this character.
• Mor­bius - You need a great screen pres­ence to play the tor­tured liv­ing vam­pire . I had a decent list of guys that could play him and feel that Alexan­der Skars­gård while already cast as Eric North­man on Tru Blood would be actor to con­vey the best screen pres­ence and also to appear impos­ing to Spidey
• Scor­pion– Jackie Earle Hart­ley screams Matt Gar­gan just on his look alone. After his great work in Watch­men I think this role would suit him. Scor­pion was brought by Jonah Jame­son in the books and as such could be brought into the film fran­chise the same way.
• Tomb­stone– Tomb­stone is con­sid­ered by most a 2nd tier character,but to me he adds a great dynamic that plays well with Peter Parker’s rela­tion­ship to fel­low Daily Bugle employee Rob­bie Robert­son. Tomb­stone– Micheal Jai White or Chi­we­tel Ejio­for. In case you are won­der­ing about my cast choice note that Tomb­stone is african amer­i­can and only looks white because of the acci­dent he suf­fered in his ori­gin story.
• Vulture-Ahh good ole Vul­ture. A Spidey vil­lain sta­ple for years. Spider-Man has fought both young and old ver­sions of the leg­endary char­ac­ter. It’s hard to cast the senior cit­i­zen Vul­ture because it’s a phys­i­cal role and I am not sure an older actor would want to do it. I hon­estly would go with Ian McK­ellen or Patrick Stewart.
• Alas­tair Smythe & The Spi­der Slay­ers — You’d need some­one smart yet also phys­i­cal for Smythe’s spi­der slayer trans­for­ma­tion. I’d go with Guy Pierce or Ewan McGre­gor on this one
• King­pin– In keep­ing with con­ti­nu­ity I’d keep Micheal Clarke Dun­can in the role since he plays it well and has the impos­ing frame to bring the char­ac­ter to life.
• Elec­tro -  One of  Spider-man’s main­stays and all around pain in the ass. I’d go with Sam Rockwell

These are cast­ing choices which “I” per­son­ally feel would work. Feel free to share your choices and/or comments.

Rich

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