SPOILERS are ahead for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It happened. All the cinematic Spider-Man actors came together for No Way Home, and now that the secret has been out for nearly two months, Tom Holland has been opening up about his experience working with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. More recently, Holland shared that he had a particular regret regarding The Amazing Spider-Man’s star that the team-up movie allowed him to amend.
Since Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters, there’s been a revitalization of love thrust toward Andrew Garfield. Fans are revisiting the past movies and we’re already daydreaming about how The Amazing Spider-Man protagonist could actually come back. Here are Tom Holland’s thoughts following working with Garfield as Spider-Man brothers:
Something I can look back on now with a little bit of clarity and regret is that I never called [Garfield] when I took over as Spider-Man. Had someone said to me after my second movie that I was done and this other kid was taking over, I would’ve been heartbroken. So looking back, I wish I had the chance to make amends with him, but this film was our opportunity. It was not only an opportunity for him to make peace with the character and the studio, but it was also an opportunity for me and him to have this moment where we realize we could share this thing. The look on his face when he saves Zendaya [MJ] is totally genuine, and I’m really proud of him.
When Tom Holland was chosen to play Spider-Man in the MCU for Captain America: Civil War, it was just a year after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had hit theaters. There were so many unresolved loose ends Andrew Garfield had yet to explore when Holland took up the helm. Holland regrets not reaching out to the actor sooner following the situation, but thankfully with No Way Home, the Amazing Spider-Man actor could finally get some closure for his Peter Parker.
As Tom Holland told The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Garfield got to continue what he started in his own films in No Way Home, especially with an especially emotional moment with Zendaya’s MJ that left tons of fans walking out talking about its power. For years, Garfield’s Spider-Man era was marked with uneasiness since it ended on a sour note, and Holland can sympathize with the experience his fellow Spider-actor had when the rug was pulled from under him before he could finish the character’s cinematic arc.
Of course, it wasn’t Tom Holland’s fault what was going down behind the scenes. Sony had just made a Spider-Man movie that received a mixed response, and Marvel had pitched the other studio an idea on how to reboot the character for the MCU. Therefore, the search for a newer and younger Spider-Man began, and Holland nabbed the role and has been busy with a ton of other movie projects since then.
Andrew Garfield has always rooted for Tom Holland and remained a fan of the franchise on the outside. It is interesting to imagine a world where Holland had Garfield’s situation happen to him instead. As he shared, he would have been “heartbroken” about the circumstance (like Garfield admits he was) and wishes he had tried earlier to get in touch with Garfield and strike up a relationship. Luckily, Spider-Man: No Way Home exists, and one of the big ways it's a lovely film is because it finally gives not only Garfield, but Tobey Maguire another crack at their Peter Parkers.
