Somebody is lying. And they might be lying about a lot of things. Because the rumor mill swirling around Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home has been generating hot takes regarding former Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield playing their versions of the Marvel hero in the next Tom Holland movie, but Garfield keeps finding creative ways to deny it. In his most recent attempt, he swears to Variety as part of a long feature covering his upcoming dramas that the stories about him returning to the famous part are false, claiming:
I understand why people are freaking out about the concept of that because I’m a fan as well. You can’t help but imagine scenes and moments of ‘Oh, my God, how fucking cool would it be if they did that?’ But it’s important for me to say on the record that this is not something I’m aware I am involved in. But I know I’m not going to be able to say anything that will convince anyone that I don’t know what’s happening. No matter what I say, I’m fucked. It’s either going to be really disappointing for people or it’s going to be really exciting.
This is going to blow up in somebody’s face. That’s just the way that we operate as a pop-culture society. We follow every step of every anticipated production, and as hard as studios, directors, producers and actors try to protect secrets, rumors spring out of pre-production -- especially when it comes to Marvel Studios projects.
Some of them turn out to be true. Many do not. Do you remember how convinced Marvel fans were that the demonic villain Mephisto would show up in the Disney+ series WandaVision? Or how an “engineer” who was mentioned off the cuff in the same series would lead to Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four before the finale? Yeah, that didn’t work out.
The Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire rumors do make a lot of sense, seeing as how the most recent trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with the return of Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, uttering the chilling line, “Hello, Peter.” We now know that the Multiverse is going to be opened by Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, and some villains from the previous Sony films will appear in the movie. Will this include the two Spider-Men?
If it does, Andrew Garfield is going about this all wrong. A subtle “No comment” is more professional than a string of blatant lies to a fanbase that hangs on his every word. Even if he’s under an NDA, there are better ways to alert the fanbase that the rumors are untrue. He’s being adamant. He’s vehemently denying it. If he’s lying, it’s a terrible look for him. The sight of him on screen as Spider-Man likely will erase this terrible taste from fans’ mouths. But others will hold this against Garfield, if he’s actively deceiving them. It’s like he says. He’s fucked, either way.
We’ll finally know for sure when Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in theaters on December 17. Until then, wait for the next creative way that Andrew Garfield denies his continued involvement in what might end up being a revolutionary Spider-Man movie… or the biggest prank on a loyal fanbase.
