Andrew Garfield’s time in the Spider-Man suit came to an abrupt end. After his second movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, failed to properly establish a cinematic universe over at Sony, the studio agreed to lend Spidey to Disney and Marvel, and Garfield’s Peter Parker was shown the door. The actor has opened up about the harsh reality of losing a franchise, and losing a role that means the world to you, before. His conversation with Amy Adams, which I’ll include below, is a raw response from an actor who happens to be a fan. So when Garfield opens up about that tumble, the pain is still evident in his voice, years later.
The actor is out promoting his turn in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Tick, Tick, Boom, but spoke to The Guardian and shared a little more details about the “heartbreaking” facts that doomed his franchise. Remembering the hardships he endured at that time, Garfield said:
I went from being a naive boy to growing up. How could I ever imagine that it was going to be a pure experience? There are millions of dollars at stake and that’s what guides the ship. It was a big awakening and it hurt.
Andrew Garfield had a very difficult task. He was set to become the first Spider-Man to follow up Tobey Maguire, the actor who personified the role on screen for millions of fans around the world. Garfield’s stint kicked off with a publicity stunt at San Diego Comic-Con, and speaking now in 2021, it sounds like Garfield would give anything to go back to that pure time and reconnect with those fans. He said:
Comic-Con in San Diego is full of grown men and women still in touch with that pure thing the character meant to them. [But] you add in market forces and test groups and suddenly the focus is less on the soul of it, and more on ensuring we make as much money as possible. And I found that – find that – heartbreaking in all matters of the culture. Money is the thing that has corrupted all of us and led to the terrible ecological collapse that we are all about to die under.
OK, that might have gone one step too far. We are still just talking about comic-book movies, Andrew. Dial it back a tad. Also, if rumors are to be believed, there might be an opportunity for Andrew Garfield to slip back into his Spider-Man suit for an historic team up for the ages. We will find out soon enough if that’s going to be the case or not. While we wait for Spider-Man: No Way Home to open in theaters, or to at least drop that second trailer, we can look forward to Garfield singing his way through the Netflix film Tick, Tick… Boom, which is hitting the streaming service beginning on November 12.
