David Fincher didn’t want to include Spider-Man’s “dumb” origin story in his pitched film

Decorated director David Fincher explained that his pitch for the 1999 Spider-Man film skipped over Peter Parker’s “dumb” origin story.

Two of the most notable aspects of the character of Spider-Man is his red and blue suit and his incredibly tragic backstory.

After being bitten by a radioactive spider on a school trip, Peter Parker then has to grapple with his uncle’s murder by a criminal he let go.

It’s a very famous origin story that’s been put on the big screen many times, but one well-known director, David Fincher, refused to rehash it because he thought it was a waste of time.

Fincher wanted to focus on Peter’s present, not his past

Fincher is a famous American director who is behind iconic works such as Fight Club, The Social Network, and Gone Girl.

During a recent interview with The Guardian, Fincher revealed that his pitch for the 1999 Spider-Man focused more on Peter as an adult and less on the “bitten by a radioactive spider” thing.

“They weren’t fucking interested,” Fincher said, “And I get it. They were like: ‘Why would you want to eviscerate the origin story?’ And I was like: ‘Cos it’s dumb?’ That origin story means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I looked at it and I was like: ‘A red and blue spider?’ There’s a lot of things I can do in my life and that’s just not one of them.”

Because of this, the director role went to Sam Raimi, who directed the iconic trilogy of Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The three movies, which starred Tobey Maguire, were well recepted by audiences and Maguire went on to reprise his role in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.