Casting news on Spider-Man 4

Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers aren’t the only Marvel superhero films coming out in the next few years as there’s also a fourth Spider-Man film via Sony Pictures planned for 2011.  While the news that director Sam Raimi would once again be telling Tobey Maguire what to do as Spider-Man isn’t new since it was announced some time ago it almost seemed like everyone forgot we had another tale of New York’s web slinger in production.

A few weeks ago rumors came out that there was a casting call for Felicia Hardy better known as the Black Cat.  Introducing the Black Cat seemed like an obvious thing to do since the previous films have had sappy dramatic moments so what’s better than a love triangle between Peter/Spider-Man, his true love Mary Jane and Felicia/Black Cat.

Actress Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes) was reported to have won the role of Felicia but that didn’t pan out and now it looks like Anne Hathaway will be Felicia Hardy but she won’t be the Black Cat. You see, the other casting news on the project is that acclaimed character actor John Malkovich is in negotiations to play the Vulture, which if you ask me is perfect casting. Despite his serious nature Malkovich has done action/effects heavy films in the past like Con Air and Eragon and I think he could bring something to the table in the role as long as he doesn’t entirely chew the scenery.

How the inclusion of the Vulture affects Felicia Hardy/Black Cat is this: reports are saying that instead of being the Black Cat Felicia will instead be a character named the Vulturess.  Yup, that’s a facepalm moment indeed.  There are no details on what the origin of the Vulturess is and what exact relation she’ll have to the Vulture. But I seriously can’t fathom why you would feature an established character only to completely change them. Oops, I feel silly for saying that since after all Sam Raimi and co. also gave us the abomination that was Venom in Spider-Man 3.

[Via MovieLine]