Raimi talks Spidey 4

Villain speculation on SPIDER-MAN 4 is only surpassed by villain speculation on BATMAN 3 (DARK KNIGHT 2?), but it’s still a hot topic for debate nonetheless. But with a lot of Peter Parker’s remaining foes a bit on the cartoonish side, what bad guy will fit with the tone of the movie?

MTV sat down with Sam Raimi to talk villains, and though he didn’t drop a name, he said who he liked and didn’t, and explained his rationale behind the villain(s) he has chosen for the next film. “I love the Lizard,” said Raimi. “

“There’s a great story there in the Marvel comic books about Dr. Connors. I’m less familiar with Carnage.” Raimi then took a long pause.

“I’m not allowed to say at this point,” he confessed.

“What we’re trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome,” Raimi said. “Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain—and we’re trying this right now; we’re trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.”

Yeah, like when Peter Parker was going through his emo-hipster-dance phase, he logically fought Sandman, Green Goblin II and Venom, combining the emotional fragility of sand with the douchiness of air-snowboarding with the goth get-up of an alien symbiote. Dramatic conflict!

Whatever, at least Raimi seems like he’s thinking carefully about this decision, which is somewhat reassuring. But part of me thinking he’s just ready to be done with this series so he can go have fun making WORLD OF WARCRAFT with hot Night Elf babes.