In another timeline, Sam Raimi made a Batman film, and we all probably loved and adored it. He did try to make one a few years ago, but it fell through because he didn’t have the rights.
Thanks to his iconic Spider-Man trilogy in the naughties, starring Tobey Maguire as the web-slinger, and his later return to superhero action in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi is one of the most esteemed and celebrated filmmakers in Marvel history. Especially for Spider-Man 2, which many still regard as the greatest all-round superhero movie ever (though the topic is widely debated).
Despite his evident love for the superhero genre, Raimi has never made a DC movie. He has come close to DC before, however, after being attached to Justice League Dark for Warner Bros./DC. The project went through development hell, going through myriad rewrites, and Raimi ultimately departed it before anything was made. Funny enough, Justice League Dark wasn’t Raimi’s only close shave with DC; he also tried to make a Batman movie back in the day, but it never quite came into fruition.
“I love Batman. I tried to make a Batman film,” he revealed in a recent interview with MovieWeb. “I couldn’t get the rights.”
The filmmaker went on to discuss his love for DC, some close shaves with making DC films, and expressed his desire to still board a project:
“I love The Shadow. I also couldn’t get the rights to that one. But, um, Superman’s always been one of my favorites. Yeah, there’s a tremendous amount of DC characters that I love, and it would just take the writers to come up with an original story based on their character, that’s true to the character and part of their real universe, not something that disappoints the fans, but something that’s based on the fans love of the character and brings out the best moment of those characters and their proper conflicts, or the right challenges for the right hero. If it was a story that had a real journey for that particular individual. Then I’d love to make the movie.”
We can only imagine what a Raimi Batman movie would look like. Given the expanse of his body of work in the world of horror, notably the Evil Dead movies, he no doubt would’ve bought a darkness to it unlike anything that came prior. He brought a little of that horror to Doctor Strange 2, but was held back by Disney’s tight MCU restraints. If he’s still down to make a DC movie, he should be given the rights. We’ll absolutely be seated.
Sam Raimi’s latest movie is horror flick Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. The film opens in theatres on January 30.
