Sam Raimi Reveals a Sequel to One of His Franchises May Be on the Way

There was a time when it felt like we may not get Sam Raimi movies anymore. Oz the Great and Powerful had hit theaters (I swear) and positively flopped. Then, the Evil Dead director moved to television and took on more responsibilities as a producer. That would have been fine, as long as he’s happy, but something about it felt off. This guy who loved making movies wasn’t making movies anymore. Then, to the surprise of quite a few people, he was pulled back into the director’s chair thanks to the MCU.

It’s not that Raimi is any stranger to comic book movies. His Spider-Man movie blew the roof off the craze in spectacular fashion. But the third one, despite being a relative financial success, has … flaws. Raimi’s trip to Oz with James Franco (yes, that really happened, stop looking confused) was a big-budget “spectacular” that sounds like it really took a lot out of the guy. Surely, an MCU movie would give him a similar feeling. Instead, he rocked that movie.

Now, Raimi has a horror comedy on the way that I am absolutely psyched about. There have been persistent rumors that Marvel wants him to make another Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie due to the success of No Way Home. To top it all off, ‘ol Sam recently revealed that a superhero he created long before he brought the web-head to the big screen would be making a return. Dr. Peyton Westlake, AKA Darkman, is set to return, with new blood behind the camera.

“Ghost House Pictures, the company I work with, is trying to make the sequel right now,” Raimi recently told Movieweb. “We’ve got a screenplay and two great directors, but we’re still having a little difficulty with the financing. It’s always the same in the movie business.” Boo! Give Sam Raimi money to do cool stuff, dagnabbit! Plenty of directors get carte blanche to make whatever they want. Why not extend that same courtesy to the man who gave us Spider-Man 2?

Darkman was one of those movies that existed almost exclusively on video store shelves to me. I’d maybe seen it, or one of its straight-to-video sequels, on the Sci-Fi channel. But I finally sat down and gave the original a proper watch a few months ago, and it is fantastic. It’s also something that, if done today, could be a fun commentary on our superhero-obsessed movie culture, as it has more of a satirical bend. If Raimi and crew do a straight sequel, even though the movie is nearly 40 years old, that could play on a current trend.

Hopefully, it won’t be called Darkman (2027), but who knows? I trust Raimi, and if he’s excited about this, then so am I. Anything would be better than Zach Braff voicing a weird, charmless, CGI flying monkey (just accept the fact that this movie exists!).