Andrew Garfield Oscars Moment Almost Had A Spider-Man Twist

While full-time wall-crawling duties are currently Tom Holland’s responsibility, past iterations of Marvel’s resident web-slinger are still associated with the character to this day. Even before they made their returns to the red and blue spandex in December 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, former Peter Parkers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were often inundated with Spidey-related questions. That chatter has somewhat subsided since No Way Home, but fans still hold out hope for a Maguire-led Spider-Man 4 or a The Amazing Spider-Man 3 starring Garfield. Garfield especially has said that his Spider-Man days are in the rear view, but that hasn’t stopped his peers from associating the Oscar nominee with the character.

This past weekend at The Academy Awards, Garfield was shown on screen during a supercut of faces in the crowd. Host Jimmy Kimmel was joking that another Will Smith and Chris Rock incident could not happen due to the security team he had set in place. He noted that his protection squad featured a Creed (Michael B. Jordan), a “Fabel Man” (Steven Speilberg), and even a Spider-Man (Garfield). While both Jordan and Spielberg gave sarcastically serious nods of approval, Garfield clenched his teeth and shrugged, giving an expression that said: “Don’t look at me!”

According to the show’s executive producer Molly McNearney, Garfield was asked to do a Spidey web-sling pose.

“I went up to Michelle Yeoh, Michael B. Jordan, Pedro Pascal, Andrew Garfield, Steven Spielberg, and we told them minutes before the show started, ‘you’re going to be on camera, Jimmy’s going to refer to you as part of his security team. If you could just show some kind of physical support or give him a fist bump.’ They were all game and they were very supportive,” McNearney said regarding the other actors’ shows of support (via Variety). “[Garfield] made his own choice, which I think was even better.”

Despite Hollywood’s insistence, Garfield has admitted that he has “no plans” to return to the role, but noted that his lengthy boy-who-cried-wolf interview campaign ahead of No Way Home will leave that door open forever.

“No plans, that’s the truth. I mean, everyone’s gonna call me a liar for the rest of my life,” Garfield said in 2022. “I am the boy who cried wolf now, that’s that.”