Spidey 3 and Harry Osborn

Sam Raimi shocked press this weekend when he said that Columbia Pictures intends for Spider-Man 3 to be the final film in the series. Apparently, Amy Pascal has made it clear that she wants a definitive finale. There would be a lot to cover to tie up all the loose threads, but at this point Raimi won't even reveal which villains he is considering. If you think that it must be Hobgoblin, to conclude Harry Osborn's arc, Raimi suggested another possibility.

"It's possible that he's been hating Spider-Man all these years because he believed that he killed his father, an innocent, fine man whose love he finally started to appreciate, or the father began to appreciate his love rather," Raimi said. "And so he thought that Spider-Man killed this good man and was shocked to learn that his own best friend had betrayed him, never revealing that he was Spider-Man. So you think that would be the case, but when he comes upon the lair of his father and realizes that his father was actually this mass murderer, the whole truth is revealed to him and he may come to the conclusion, he may come to the realization that his father was an evil man and finally had to be destroyed. I'm not sure what's in Harry's mind. I'm trying to figure that out right now. It's like if you blamed someone for the death of your father all these years and someone who was supposedly this hero, vigilante, and then you realized that your father was a mass murderer, it might change things."

That would deviate from the comic books, but Raimi could justify it. "As much of a responsibility as I have to the fans of the comic books, I also have an equal responsibility to be true to the intelligence of the character as portrayed in the Spider-Man movies. And Harry's a smart guy, even though he's sometimes weak and sometimes driven by insecurities and desire to live up to his father's image. He is an intelligent man, and so I can't deny that possibility."

Right now, Raimi is working according to Pascal's plan, though expressed that he would continue making Spider-Man films were he allowed to. "One thing that Amy Pascal told me was that she wants to make this a proper ending to the Spider-Man saga. I'd like to keep directing Spider-Man movies but I think she's thinking that the audience feels they want to see one more and no more. They want to have a proper ending to the story now. So I think maybe she's right, and so I'm approaching it under her guidance and that's how I'm trying to think of this film as the end."