The Big Picture

  • Anne Hathaway confirms she was cast as Black Cat in the abandoned Spider-Man 4.
  • Hathaway downplays the significance, says it's the producers' story to tell why the movie never happened.
  • The missed opportunity led Hathaway to play Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises.

Once upon a time, Sam Raimi was set to direct a fourth Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire in the lead role, before the project collapsed. Development for the film began in 2007, following director Raimi's prior three Spider-Man installments, and was slated to feature the return of the director and much of the franchise's main cast. However, it was eventually abandoned in 2010. Three years later, Raimi himself mentioned that Anne Hathaway would have portrayed Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in the movie and now the actress has confirmed her casting during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

Confirming that she did in fact sign on for the part, Hathaway was keen not to make too big a deal of the issue after the film fell apart due to Raimi leaving the project and a host of behind-the-scenes issues, which ultimately led to the franchise being rebooted with Andrew Garfield in the titular role. Hailing what Spider-Man has continued to be as a pop culture touchstone, Hathaway claimed it wasn't her story to tell as to why the movie never went ahead.

"I did not get into costume and did not read a script past the audition sides," Hathaway said. "I got the part and, yeah, it just… I think that's probably more the producers' story to tell than mine should they ever decided to tell it. The Spider-Man universe has gone on to be so enormous and so thrilling. It's just reinventing itself and all of those things so I wouldn't want to make more of it than is necessary."

Who Did Anne Hathaway Play in 'The Dark Knight Rises'?

Although Hathaway didn't have the opportunity to portray Black Cat on screen for Raimi and Marvel, the missed opportunity led to her taking on the role of Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, with Hathaway adding her belief that if Spider-Man 4 had come to fruition, she probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to play the cat burglar opposite Christian Bale.

"That's how I hold it. The way I hold it is if that movie had gotten made, I don't know if I would have been considered because I don't know if (Nolan) would've said, 'No, no, she's occupied in another universe. As an actor, you don't know this on day one, but you learn to just go, 'You know what? The right role finds the right person, and sometimes it's you and sometimes it's not, so when it doesn't happen just trust deeper and keep going, Just keep going."

You can see Hathaway's interview with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused down below.