Much to the delight of Marvel fans everywhere, Andrew Garfield returned as Peter Parker in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. The actor's time as the wall-crawler reached an abrupt end after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a sequel that was supposed to launch at least three more movies.
The Amazing Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 4, and Sinister Six were all scrapped when Sony Pictures decided to partner with Marvel Studios. As a result, Garfield had to sit back and watch as Tom Holland took over the role from him in 2016's Captain America: Civil War.
The hope is that both he and Tobey Maguire will show up in the next Avengers movies, Doomsday and Secret Wars. Garfield has repeatedly played coy when asked about that over the past five years or so, but did reflect on his No Way Home experience while talking to Hits Radio.
Reflecting on his favourite scene in the movie—the three Spider-Men discussing their respective villains—Garfield revealed, "All that was improvised. The idea was, you just want the three Spider-Men to talk about their experiences and compare notes. Let’s do long takes and see if there’s any gold in there. And there was so much to choose from."
"And that moment took me by surprise. I was like, 'Oh, that was sweet.' And hearing it from Tobey, who was my Spider-Man growing up, it was all just so meta and so kind of personal and perfect. And I was very, very happy to just be a part of it, really."
Garfield also opened up on what it was like learning he'd been cast as the new Peter Parker in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man:
"It was wild. It was surreal. I mean, I grew up with Spider-Man. I was a huge comic book fan as a kid, and Spider-Man was always my favorite. The idea of being able to play him was... it was a dream, you know? But also incredibly daunting because it's such an iconic character, and there had been previous versions that people loved. Tobey Maguire had done such an amazing job. I was nervous about how to make it my own, but also honor what had come before."
"And the suit... yeah, the tights. They were very tight. [Laughs] It was a whole process getting into that thing every day. But once you're in it and you're swinging around, it does feel pretty incredible. The physicality of it was really fun to explore, the acrobatics, the web-slinging. We did a lot of practical stuff, which was great."
"I think what drew me to it the most was the human side of Peter Parker. You know, he's this awkward, nerdy kid who's trying to figure himself out while also having these immense responsibilities. That duality was really interesting to play with. And the relationship with Gwen, with Emma [Stone], that was really special. We had such great chemistry, and it felt very real."
Elsewhere in the conversation, Garfield said that he would be fully on board with seeing Stone suit up as Spider-Man and joked that she should reteam with Poor Things and Bugonia filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos for the project.
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