There has been a lot of speculation in recent months that Spider-Man 4 may feature The Lizard, Vulture, and Black Cat, as its villains. MovieLine is today claiming that they have an inside tip telling them that Vulture will be one of the film’s two villains, but The Lizard and Black Cat will not be appearing, although Felicia Hardy (who is Black Cat’s alter ego) will be in the film as a new villain named The Vulturess. They claim that this new villain/Felicia Hardy will be played by Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain, Get Smart) and that John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons, Burn After Reading) will play Vulture.

Personally I have never been a big fan of the Vulture character and think that there are many better villains to choose from for the next movie, and furthermore I cannot believe this new rumor of Black Cat being turned into The Vulturess is true, and if it is then the people responsible for it simply do not have a clue what they are doing. Black Cat is basically Spider-Man’s equivalent of Batman’s Catwoman, so to rewrite her as a new villain, who is still the alter ego of Felicia Hardy, is just ridiculous. If they truly want to go with a Vulture and Vulturess villain duo then a completely new character who is not Felicia Hardy should be written in. If I am not a fan of Vulture then I assume you can have a good guess as to what I think of two Vulture characters appearing as Spider-Man’s new enemies!

As a big fan of the comics, I can honestly say that I have not enjoyed Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie series thus far, and it only seems as if things are going to get worse. Rather than another dreadful movie following on from the disaster that was Spider-Man 3, I would prefer to see no new films in the series for a while and when the time is right a completely new film independent of this series should be made.

At least not as far as we know, but while we have your attention:

Yet more actresses have been linked to a role in the forthcoming Spider-sequel.

On Tuesday UGO reported that Julia Stiles was in talks with a casting company to discuss a role in the film, while yesterday Deadline Hollywood revealed that Anne Hathaway had met with the film’s producers.

Will either of them land the role? Maybe. Do we care anymore? Not really.

While we published our own Spider-rumour last week, we at least tried to move the story forward, including a confirmation that The Black Cat was in the film, and an attempt to cobble together details of the plot based on what our source had seen.

Since then, at least three more actresses have been linked to the part, while McAdams has public denied her involvement, and Garai has explained to Digital Spy just how unlikely she is to get the part.

From here on in we’re declaring a moratorium on new Spidey rumours. Until we hear something either concrete or incredible, and preferably from our own sources, we have no intention of writing any more copy about actresses lining up to sit on Raimi’s “˜casting couch’.

That is until we hear that Kirsten Stewart really has been linked to the part. We need the hits.

Seems like there’s a bit of Spidey 4 news coming out every day at the moment. It’s not surprising really, the film is currently casting the minor characters, so lots of people who haven’t signed non-disclosure agreements are getting bits of information about the production, and then talking about it. That’s why, over the next few weeks we should expect some fascinating news, and then a complete blackout until the official publicity machine starts “˜leaking’ on set photos early next year.

The latest bits of news are a casting call for ginger-haired toddlers and an official denial from Rachel McAdams that she’s up for the role of The Black Cat.

It’s not really surprising that McAdams has shot down the rumours of her involvement with the project. She’s just one of at least three actresses up for the part. She’d look pretty daft if she were to confirm that she was in the running and subsequently be turned down. It might also not be looked upon too favourably by the production team behind Spider-Man 4 if she were to start talking about it openly. At any length, it’s not worth counting her out of the running just yet.

As for the ginger-haired toddler, this casting call has been posted on spoilertv.com:

Spider-Man 4 – Official Casting Call for Baby Boy with Red Hair

[TODDLER BOY]

2 or 3 year old boy to play 2 year old, Caucasian with RED HAIR, an adorable toddler with an engaging personality, on set experience preferred. IDENTICAL TWINS ONLY

Their take on it is that the child could be playing the child of Peter and Mary Jane, or a young version of Cletus Kassady, who becomes Carnage in the comics.

It seems pretty safe to dismiss the carnage idea. Raimi only included Venom in the last film at the behest of the studio, and besides, it wouldn’t fit with any of the details we published previously.

It’s more likely that he is the son of Peter and MJ, but you have to wonder whether it would really serve Raimi’s purposes to make Peter a family man.

So who could the child be?

Our guess is a flash forward to Peter’s future, although there is one other intriguing possibility: What if MJ got her naughty on with Harry while Pete was being a dick during the last film? What if the baby is what drives Pete away from MJ and towards Felecia Hardy? What if there was actually some character development in the next film?

Feel free to suggest your own plot line for the spider-tot below.

A few days ago Mania.com reported that Rachel McAdams had been in negotiations to join the cast of Spider-Man 4. According to the story she was up for the role of Felicia Hardy, also known as The Black Cat.

HeyUGuys has learned that Adams isn’t the only actress up for the role.

According to our friendly neighbourhood spider-source there are a number of actresses currently being considered for the role, but this at least confirms that Hardy is going to be in the film.

We were also given a rough outline of the character’s story arc. Apparently she is the daughter of the new editor of The Daily Bugle, a man who is also referred to as “˜a viper’ (more on this in a second). She falls in love with Peter Parker, and uncovers his true identity. Her father then dies, and Hardy becomes a threat to Peter Parker (presumably as The Black Cat).

This doesn’t fit exactly with the comic book incarnation of Hardy, who is the daughter of a cat burglar, but the character’s interaction with Peter Parker is fairly close to that in the comics.

The source also implied that the word viper has some relevance. We’ve been trying to work out what, and we’re at a loss.  Looking through the pantheon of marvel characters the only ones known as “˜The Viper’ are villains in Captain America stories, so it’s unlikely that it’s the name of a baddie, although our source did suggest that Felicia’s father is a villain as well as the editor of The Daily Bugle.

We’re hoping to get some more details soon. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.