Amid the massive wave of rumors surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home and potential appearances from past web swingers, former Spider-Man Andrew Garfield reflected upon his experience in a role that came with a certain amount of “heartbreak.”
Back in 2012 when it was time to suit up as Spider-Man, Garfield’s excitement to play Peter Parker was at an all-time high since he was the first to admit Peter Parker was a big influence on him as a child, dubbing the opportunity as “every skinny boy’s dream.” Unfortunately, reception towards The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and differences between many of the parties involved, including Garfield, caused plans for a third movie to be scrapped, and now the actor has opened up even more about that era.
During an interview with The Guardian, Garfield, who was 28 at the time, described his time as Spider-Man as going from “being a naive boy to growing up." Garfield explained that he found out taking part in superhero blockbusters was far from the pure experience he imagined. The actor compared said pureness to the way Comic-Con attendants feel about characters, whereas studios “add in market forces [to Spider-Man] and test groups and suddenly the focus is less on the soul of it and more on ensuring we make as much money as possible,” all of which result in a “heartbreaking” affair in terms of culture for a man who's mostly stayed away from huge movies since then.
Garfield’s comments will hardly surprise anyone who followed through with his alleged “firing” from the Spider-Man role, purported by leaked emails from Sony, as back in 2016 the actor confessed that he “didn’t compromise” who he was and that "might have been difficult for some people.” Considering such a storied past, a No Way Home cameo seems even harder to pull off, but at the same time, it would make it so much better.
Overall, Garfield’s story with Spider-Man is quite relatable, as the actor always expressed his love for a character that had been with him since he was a kid, only to see the vision for it compromised due to corporate greed. Ultimately, the vision that Sony had for The Amazing Spider-Man didn’t prove to be the winning formula, as the success found with Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man has far exceeded anything accomplished by Garfield and Tobey Maguire before.
Even if Garfield doesn’t show up in No Way Home, the new Spider-Man posters have confirmed the return of the Green Goblin, so tiny parts from his era as the web-slinger are bound to be spread across a film that fully buys into the multiverse concept. Suffice to say, Holland's Spider-Man swan song is shaping up to be the kind of event Garfield missed out on, so heartbreaking indeed.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will premiere in theaters on December 17, 2021.
Source: The Guardian