Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man Return Would Have to Be as “Special, Meaningful” as No Way Home

January 8, 2022, 10:05pm

Andrew Garfield has revealed his conditions for taking another swing at Spidey after Spider-Man: No Way Home. Garfield returns to the role for the first time since 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when a magic spell meant to erase Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) secret identity instead brings multiversal trespassers, heroes and villains alike, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After teaming with the Spider-Men of the past and the present — Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland, respectively — Garfield says he’s open to another trip back into Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Verse.

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“Never say never,” Garfield told Entertainment Tonight when asked about suiting up as Spider-Man a fourth time. “It’s a character that’s always going to be so meaningful to me, and so beautiful to me and again, it comes back to service. I think if there’s a way, because that’s what that character is all about, he’s all about serving the greater good and serving his fellow people, serving humanity and all life.”

“So, if there’s a way for me to continue to add to the legacy of that character in a way that feels like it’s of service to an audience, of service to the themes that [co-creator] Stan Lee injected that character with,” Garfield said, “I’m open, of course, I’m very, very open, but it would have to be very, very special. It would have to be very, very meaningful and fun, and joyful, like doing No Way Home was.”

When Sony rebooted Spider-Man a second time to bring Holland’s younger wall-crawler into the MCU with Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios taking creative charge, the studio jettisoned plans for a Garfield-centered universe springing from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Two sequels were slated for release in 2016 and 2018, with The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 part of a cinematic universe that would have spun off Venom and Sinister Six.

Sony has since reconfigured those plans, launching Sony’s Spider-Man Universe — formerly known as Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters — with 2018’s Venom. Separate from Disney-Marvel’s MCU, the SSU is home to anti-heroes Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the living vampire Michael Morbius (Jared Leto).

Adding that he feels “very connected” to the character who is “always going to be a part of me, whether I’m playing the character or not,” Garfield relished the opportunity to return to his Spider-Man years after his universe was unceremoniously discontinued.

“First and foremost, I am a fan, so when [Spider-Man producer] Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige and [director] Jon Watts asked to have a word with me and talk to me about an idea, and they pitched it, it was like I was the fans in the audience, watching it onscreen for the first time with like, the three Spider-Men across universes sharing a frame together,” Garfield said. “And like, your head, your little head, it just explodes. So, that’s the main thing in me that I feel about it.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing exclusively in theaters.