Ever since December 2020, it was speculated that actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would reprise their roles as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which released worldwide this weekend. There’s no smoke without fire, and as it turns out, those rumours weren’t entirely unfounded. Spoilers for No Way Home follow.
Tobey Maguire had played the web-slinger in the original trilogy of films directed by Sam Raimi; Andrew Garfield took over in The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel. The latest film, No Way Home, is a continuation of a new series that stars Tom Holland as Spider-Man, a character that he has played since 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. In No Way Home, the multiverse has been torn open, leading to the return of characters from the previous Spider-Man series, which led many to believe that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield could also be involved.
However, as the speculation got more fervent, the actors did their best to dodge or deny the rumours emphatically. Fans combed through the trailers to see if they could find hints of Maguire or Garfield, and even came up with numerous theories. The speculation grew so intense that even Garfield admitted defeat, saying that nothing he was going to say mattered.
Garfield told Variety, “It’s important for me to say on the record that this is not something I’m aware I am involved in. But I know I’m not going to be able to say anything that will convince anyone that I don’t know what’s happening. No matter what I say, I’m f**cked. It’s either going to be really disappointing for people or it’s going to be really exciting.”
Even Tom Holland, who is infamous for letting secrets slip, refuted all the rumours. In February 2021, he firmly told Esquire that Garfield and Maguire would not be in the film. He said, “No, no, they will not be appearing in this film. Unless they have hidden the most massive piece of information from me, which I think is too big of a secret for them to keep from me. But as of yet, no. It’ll be a continuation of the Spider-Man movies that we’ve been making.”
However, this wasn’t the only time he maintained this facade. On The Tonight Show, he said that if Maguire and Garfield were to appear in the film, it would be nothing less than a miracle. By this time, there were reports that Jamie Foxx’s Electro (from Garfield’s films) would be involved, along with Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock. “It would be amazing if they were because they (meaning Marvel) haven’t told me that yet, and I am Spider-Man, and I’ve read the script from the beginning to the end,” Holland told host Jimmy Fallon. “So, it would be a miracle if they could’ve kept that from me, but at the moment there is no cameo from the two boys,” he said.
Yet, Holland appeared to be dropping quiet hints in his interviews, further fanning the flames. In an interview to Empire, he revealed that he had ‘shot one of the coolest scenes he’s ever shot’, with a character ‘that he wasn’t at liberty to disclose’.
After there was a leak of set images in November, the speculation evolved into absolute surety. Talking to Total Film, Holland had said, “People don’t believe me when I say that [Maguire and Garfield] are not coming back. But people are going to have to believe me at some point. It means a lot to me. The first time you see Doc and the rest of the characters that come back, it’s so exciting – and it’s such a huge moment in cinematic history. It’s three generations coming together.”
Andrew Garfield went so far as to say that the photo was a fake and had been morphed.
Well, after the release of No Way Home, it goes to show that they’re all superb actors–not just for their performances in the films–but because they put together quite the collective performance off-screen as well.
