Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man Head Spotted On No Way Home Promotional Flyer

By Russ Burlingame

A Marvel fan is convinced he sees the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man in a piece of official promotional material for Spider-Man: No Way Home. If true, this would mark the first time material officially cleared by Disney featured an image of two eras of live-action Spider-Man actors in the same frame. The image came on a promotional flier as part of a Barkbox release, which is a monthly subscription service filled with pet toys. The apparent Maguire Spider-Man is a small portion of the character's head, which is printed in black and white and pictured against a building, which explains why it might have slipped past Marvel.

Both Maguire and The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield have long been rumored to appear in the Tom Holland-fronted No Way Home. Set photos and video have purported to show the three Spider-Man actors together, but the cast and producers have either ignored or outright denied those images.

"I understand why people are freaking out about the concept of that because I'm a fan as well. You can't help but imagine scenes and moments of 'Oh, my God, how fucking cool would it be if they did that?'" Garfield recently told Variety. "But 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 fucked. It's either going to be really disappointing for people or it's going to be really exciting."

Maguire's costume is visibly different from Holland's, in a couple of ways that lend weight to the idea that this image could be the first real proof of the multiple Spider-Men. The webbing on his costume is significantly more raised than on Holland's (or Garfield's), and the black outline around the costume's white eyes is narrower. The suit made a background appearance in the trailer for Sony's Morbius, confusing just about everybody.

You can see the Barkbox image below.

The idea of the multiverse has been a part of superhero storytelling since 1961's "The Flash of Two Worlds" by Garner Fox and Carmine Infantino, but live action had generally steered clear of it until pretty recently. The idea has the feeling of harder science fiction than most superhero stories, and for years it seemed Hollywood didn't believe audiences would buy in. The popuarity of The Flash, which started using the multiverse as a storytelling tool in 2015, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) proved that wrong.

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Loki, and What If...?, Marvel's multiverse seems to be more wide open than ever before, and that has some fans expecting to see Garfield's Spider-Man, as well as Tobey Maguire's, share the screen with Holland. Following the commercial success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, there's hardly a more commonsense character for Marvel to begin exploring its infinite Earths with. 

Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Sony and Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: No Way Home is scheduled to open in theaters on December 17.

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