Sam Raimi explains Spider-Man 3's infamous dance scene: "We wanted it to be fun"

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The Multiverse of Madness director breaks down Peter Parker's dancing

Spider-Man 3
(Image credit: Sony)

Sam Raimi has addressed that infamous dance scene in Spider-Man 3.

In the movie, Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker becomes corrupted by the influence of the black Venom suit – and to show his new bad boy persona, he… dances in the street?

"Well, we meant it to be funny, actually," Raimi told Fandom. "It was Peter Parker's version – this lame kid – of what it must be like to be his evil self. But he's so whipped. He's so out of it that that's his take on it. And that didn't go over well with the audience. But that's what we were trying to do. So I'm not surprised that people… I'm glad people find it funny! We wanted it to be fun."

The scene has taken on a life of its own since Spider-Man 3 released – but, though Maguire appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland, the movie didn't re-create the moment.

"It was probably like two hours and 40 minutes, and it slowly came down, even though we did the reshoots," the director said recently of the runtime. "We took out material even though the reshoots went in. So, it slowly got down to about two hours and five minutes is the total."

Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.