Spider-Man: No Way Home: Tom Holland Speaks Out About Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man Return

If you’re reading this then you should already know about the big twists of Spider-Man: No Way Home – namely the return of former Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. It’s now clear to Marvel fans that the actors involved with No Way Home did quite a bit of lying about who or what was involved with the film – and to be fair, they kind of had to. Fans and press hounded every actor or crew member ever involved with a Spider-Man movie for answers about No Way Home. Well, now star Tom Holland can finally speak up about what it was like getting to work with Garfield. 

“Andrew Garfield, the legend himself,” Holland said to Marvel.com. “He’s such a lovely guy. I think this film was his way of making peace with Spider-Man It was such a privilege to work with him. I know that it meant a lot to him.”

Andrew Garfield got what is arguably the rawest end of the deal in terms of the three actors that have played Spider-Man in live-action movies. Garfield was brought in during the early 2010s to replace Tobey Maguire in a reboot Spider-Man film franchise (The Amazing Spider-Man) – a franchise that Sony planned to extend into an entire Spider-Man movie universe. However, after two Amazing Spider-Man films failed to win widespread fan acclaim (even though they both made over half a billion dollars worldwide) Sony pulled the rug from under Garfield’s webbed feet, by relaunching Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

It’s been no secret that Garfield was disappointed with how his franchise fizzled out; he’s spent the years since much more out of public view, and sticking to dramatic roles in arthouse or prestige films (like this year’s Tick… Tick… Boom!). What Holland said is very true: much of Garfield’s performance in Spider-Man: No Way Home seemed very meta, with the actor working out the emotions of both his version of Peter Parker (following the tragic end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and his own emotions as Andrew Garfield, middle-child of Spider-Man movies. For fans of Garfield, lines of dialogue like “I’m Peter 3!” and “I became bitter,” hit especially hard.

However, according to Spider-Man: No Way Home star Zendaya, Garfield (and the other boys) all got to work something out while making this movie, together:

“It was so beautiful. [Tobey, Andrew, and Tom] care so deeply about the characters, and what their characters— what their journey had been as Spider-Man. It was so beautiful to see all of you guys connect on that and be able to talk to each other about such a special experience that very few people have been able to don the suit. It was great to see how much you guys all really cared and had each other’s back. It was really sweet.”

Tom Holland certainly agreed with that sentiment, stating “It’s like a brotherhood.”

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