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by Keane Eacobellis
After a year of teasing and wild speculation, Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t disappoint. Despite the occasional leak, Sony and Marvel Studios kept us guessing right up until the December 17 premiere.
This campaign of secrecy included Andrew Garfield telling outright lies about deepfakes, Kevin Feige warning us that we might be disappointed, and the stars repeatedly telling interviewers they wouldn’t answer any questions about returning Spider-Men.
In the end, both Garfield and Tobey Maguire nailed it, successfully bringing back their own takes on Spider-Man without stealing the limelight from Tom Holland’s trilogy finale. Now, Maguire has finally shared his thoughts on No Way Home in a roundtable with all three Spideys hosted by Deadline.
“It was just a beautiful kind of unfolding of this story and these relationships, but I’d have these reflective moments which were quite powerful because you’re thinking about taking 20 years of history and revisiting that and how do you balance all of these things?
We’re playing the same character but they’re also unique and the way those films and characters evolved in those films are unique and then to bring all of that together including all of our super villains and all of that it was pretty wild to witness the immensity of all of this history coming together and being put into this stand-alone worthwhile story.”
Maguire went on to single out Holland for his performance:
“I just wanted to say I was really touched emotionally but also, I just thought it had such a sweet elegance to it that was so amazing in terms of the origin story and the kind of coming of age. Tom, your character is stepping into this different kind of maturity and responsibility, and all done with this like really sweet sad elegant touch. It was just beautiful.”
The whole interview is worth watching, particularly Holland saying that No Way Home has exceeded all expectations in terms of box office and cultural impact. He says he likes to search out audience reaction videos to see people responding to the big moments in real-time.
Also interesting is hearing how they approached Maguire to step back into a Spidey suit. Secrecy was high, and he had no idea how big a role he’d be playing, but he felt instantly good about it as he could tell how much Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal loved Sam Raimi’s movies.
Despite this, it sounds as if Maguire considers this is swansong, though the hugely positive response to Garfield’s Spider-Man may mean he’ll be back soon. Here’s hoping that comes to pass, as there’s definitely room for more than one big screen web-slinger.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now in theaters.