Spider-Man Star Says Lying About Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield Returns Was “Right Thing to Do”

The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield says lying not to spoil his secret return alongside Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man: No Way Home was the “absolute right thing to do.” Marketing for the Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios co-production, which involved consultation with Spider-Man producer Kevin Feige, concealed what was considered the “worst kept secret in Hollywood“: the movie was swinging into the Spider-Verse. Trailers teased the returns of multiversal villains appearing for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — including Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man 2‘s Alfred Molina) and Electro (The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s Jamie Foxx) — but the Spider-Men Variants, played by Maguire and Garfield, would be kept under wraps until audiences experienced No Way Home in theaters. 

“There was not a big conversation about any of it. I would text Amy [Pascal, Spider-Man producer] and be like, ‘Have you seen this?’ (laughs) She’d be like, ‘Oh my god! What?!’ I’m like, ‘So, cat’s out of the bag, right?’” Garfield said on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast. “But then, ultimately, it was we just told the lie, and we kind of keep going. I think it was the right thing to do.”

Garfield repeatedly denied his long-rumored return in No Way Home, even refuting an alleged leak showing him on set of the Tom Holland-led sequel — in costume. 

“Even if the majority of people were like, ‘we’re pretty sure this is going to happen,’ I think even when you’re pretty sure something is going to happen psychologically, and you want it to happen, when it comes to the moment where you’re about to find out if it’s going to happen or not, suddenly a weird self-preservation thing comes in where you start to live with the idea of it not happening,” Garfield said. “And then that just ups the want for the thing to happen, so there’s a real kind of fun chemical thing that gets created in you. Even with the people I think were pretty sure it was going to happen, I’m sure there was a little scintilla of doubt as they were walking in to see Spider-Man: No Way Home which allowed them to release and say, ‘Yes, it happened!’”

Garfield continued, “I think it was the absolute right thing to do. It gave me fun things to talk about and deny and talk about Photoshop, even when it was clearly me on set for Spider-Man wearing a Spider-Man [suit] (laughs). I loved that.” 

 Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing exclusively in theaters and will soon be available to own on digital.