Andrew Garfield says he’s more than open to reprising his role as Spider-Man if the opportunity presents itself.
via Complex:
In a recent interview with Variety, the 38-year-old actor opened up about his return to the Spider-Man franchise and whether he was willing to reprise his role as Peter Parker.
“I mean, yes, definitely open to something if it felt right,” he told the outlet. “Peter and Spider-Man, those characters are all about service, to the greater good and the many. He’s a working-class boy from Queens that knows struggle and loss and is deeply empathetic. I would try to borrow Peter Parker’s ethical framework in that, if there was an opportunity to step back in and tell more of that story, I would have to feel very sure and certain in myself.”
Garfield portrayed the webslinger in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man as well as its 2014 sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. After Sony pulled the plug on a third installment, many fans accepted that Garfield’s Spider-Man days were over—that is, until 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered.
Garfield—along with Sony’s original Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire—appeared in the Tom Holland-led flick, which further explored the multiverse concept. Garfield told Variety he never expected to return to the franchise, but was ultimately convinced after speaking to producers Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige as well as director Jon Watts.
“It sounded incredibly fun, incredibly spiritual—trippy and thematically interesting,” he explained. “On a base level, as a Spider-Man fan, just the idea of seeing three Spider-Men in the same frame was enough. The pitch was really, really enticing. They said, ‘You played this character in your way and what would you want to explore if you had an opportunity? If you were dumped into this other universe and faced with this younger you and this older you, how will you respond?’
“We talked a lot about mentorship,” he continued. “We talked a lot about brotherhood and about what it is to be the older brother, younger brother and the middle brother.
Though Garfield’s Spider-Man films weren’t failures, his tortured take on the iconic superhero received mixed reviews from Marvel fans. Garfield touched on this polarization while speaking to Variety, saying he was grateful to give Peter Parker another go and receive a sense of closure.
“I am so grateful. I’m just really, really grateful that I got to tie up some loose ends for the Peter that I was playing,” he said. “I love that character and I’m grateful that I got to work with these incredible actors, this incredible director, and Marvel in conjunction with Sony. It was joyful, and a feeling of closure for me. There was so many unanswered questions for my Peter, where we left it. I got to step back in and get some healing for him. And also really supporting [Holland’s] Peter, and honoring his character completing that trilogy, not distracting or detracting from it.”
We’re ready for the Miles Morales live-action film. We don’t need any more white boy Spider-Men.
