Sony (via Deadline) has finally shared the first-ever interview with Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, featuring the instantly iconic trio breaking their silence on the most legendary of Marvel team-ups and spilling the beans on how it all came together... and what could come next.
Holland kicks off the long-overdue chat by expressing his gratitude at the overwhelming global response to the film and how much of a thrill it brings him to see audience reactions to the third act entries of both Garfield and Maguire.
“I mean, I always knew that this film would be loved around the world. I didn’t think it would be quite as massive as it has been. One of my favorite things to do at the minute is to go online and watch fans’ reactions to you guys coming in that one scene in particular. I don’t think I could ever have imagined it as being so well received by everyone. I mean, I guess I had an idea that people would love this movie, but in no way, shape or form could I have thought it was going to be as big as it has been. And it’s been … only the last couple weeks that I have sort of really come back to reality and come home and started to face real-world problems, and it feels like we’ve been on some sort of really weird dream. It feels really strange.”
We heard a lot from Maguire last night, as he detailed his initial meeting with Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige and how their genuine intent of celebration and love convinced him to get back in the suit, and now, Garfield admits that once Maguire signed on, he immediately knew he was also coming back.
“Well, I was just waiting to see if Tobey was going to do it, and if Tobey was going to do it, then I was like, ‘Well, I have no choice,’ you know? I follow Tobey to the ends of the Earth. I’m a lemming for Tobey.”
He continues, “That was sincerely a big part of it when I was approached about it, and again, it’s similar to what Tobey was saying. It was like, ‘Oh, the intention feels very pure here. It actually feels like a great creative idea and a great creative story.’ It wasn’t like they were just asking us to come and say hi and then leave again but actually have our presence being in service to Tom, being in service to Tom’s journey and where he is as Peter Parker. And I love the destiny feeling of the multiverse expanding in this film, and actually, without Tobey’s Peter and Andrew’s Peter being present for Tom’s Peter at this very moment, he may not become the Peter Parker that he’s supposed to become. … Getting three Spider-Men together could go one of two ways, and I think it’s a testament to these guys that it went the way that it went, which was a brotherhood, which is just beautiful.”
Beautiful, indeed.
When detailing their first meeting, Holland revealed just how nervous he was to finally meet his childhood Spider-Man heroes and how he found himself counting down the days till they actually showed up on set. He tells Maguire and Garfield:
"It was very daunting, because we were a long way into shooting before you guys showed up, you know we were maybe three months into principal photography, and the date of the other Spider-Mans are coming was etched on my calendar."
Holland admits to having so much anxious energy bubbling inside of him that he actually brought the support system of Zendaya and Jacob Batalon to help ease his nerves during that monumental first meeting.
"I realized I had nothing to be nervous about, but on our first at our first rehearsal, I had asked Jacob and Zendaya to come with me to just be there as like my support system. Like, I'm gonna go meet these guys I'm really nervous about it, because we have to read the scene and I don't know how this is gonna go because we're all playing the same character and we all have to bring our own kind of heart and soul into this."
"It was really strange and almost a little unfair how they had us put the suits on and then just jump around in front of a camera together like that was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Again, Jacob and Zendaya were there for that to support me, but it was an amazing experience and from day one it was a roller coaster that I didn't want to get off of."
As for what comes next, that's the billion-dollar question. Ever since the film's release, the interwebs have been buzzing with rumors about Sony and Marvel Studios' potential multiversal plans for the three different Spider-Men, with multiple scoopers claiming the studio had high hopes to bring them back in different capacities, potentially even in another film starring all three.
However, while Maguire and Garfield reprising their roles would be icing on the proverbial Spider-Man cake, it's the return of Holland that is suddenly more up in the air than previously thought. Thankfully, he's finally come clean about what he knows - and doesn't know - about his wall-crawling future.
“The truthful answer — and I’ve done a whole press tour where all I do is lie — the truth is, and you’re not going to like the truth, I don’t know the answer to that question. This film for me was as special as an experience could ever be. Sharing the screen with these guys. Playing Spider-Man could be quite an alienating experience because, you know, we’re the only three blokes who have done it. So to share that with you two, it’s been such a wonderful experience, of which I have such amazing memories. I don’t know, there’s part of me that feels like it’s the perfect time to jump off the building and swing off into the sunset and let the next lucky young kid come in to don the suit. Or I might, I don’t know, buy a new house and need a paycheck and I’ll be back,”
While all signs have pointed toward Holland returning, with the rumor mill even recently suggesting that he's in the midst of negotiating a new deal that would keep him in the role for the foreseeable future, it sounds like whether he comes back or not, he's quite happy with his contribution to the legacy of Spider-Man.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I know I love this character, and I know that I am not ready to say goodbye. But if it’s time for me to say goodbye, then I will do so proudly, knowing that I’ve achieved everything I wanted to with this character, and sharing it with these boys will be forever one of the most special experiences of my career. So, if it’s time, it’s time. If it’s not, it’s not. But at the moment, I don’t know.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters worldwide!