After the unprecedented success ofAvengers: Endgamein 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled to maintain the same consistency that it experienced in its first decade. While there have been great successes, likeDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,WandaVisionandGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, there have also been more than a few high-profile failures, such asAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,Eternals,Secret Invasionand, most recently,The Marvels. Over the last five years, the biggest success in the franchise has undoubtedly beenSpider-Man: No Way Home, the third Tom HollandSpider-Manfilm, which also brought back previous live-action Spider-Men, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, with multiverse storytelling.
No Way Homeeasily became the highest-grossingSpider-Manfilm of all time, beating out the previous record-holder,Spider-Man: Far From Home, by almost $800 million. It landed at just over $1.9 billion, a billion more than anySpider-Manfilm prior to 2019’sFar From Home. It’s also the third-highest grossing film in the entirety of the MCU, only behindAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgame, and it’s the second-highest grossing film of the decade so far, behindAvatar: The Way of Water. With this success in mind, it’s no wonder why Sony and Marvel Studios are so keen on moving forward with a fourthSpider-Manfilm centered on Tom Holland’s version of the character.
However, the two studios reportedly havedifferent visions for what this fourth film will look like. While Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios reportedly want a more “ground-level”Spider-Manfilm, building directly off what the end ofNo Way Homeclearly set up, Sony is instead interested in bringing Maguire and Garfield back for another round of live-action Spider-Verse madness. We believe that bringing those two back again, at least at this point, would be a major mistake. Here’s why:
Why No Way Home Worked
In the lead-up to the release ofSpider-Man: No Way Home, the conversation about whether Maguire and Garfield would return or not was inescapable. While all signs pointed toward them being in the film –villains from both of their filmswere heavily featured in the marketing and several key plot points and images of them in costume were leaked online long before the film’s release – their involvement was still consistently denied. Both of them insisted they were not in the film, as did all of their co-stars throughout the entire promotional tour, which maintained an aura (however slight) of doubt. Bringing the three live-action Spider-Men together was something that had never been done before, and it was often considered too much of a dream to actually come true.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
This entire situation and conversation sparked a fire, which droveNo Way Hometo the biggest opening weekend in years. With word of mouth confirming Maguire and Garfield to be in the film, the movie quickly became the must-see movie of 2021. Even casual fans and general audiences felt the need to rush out and see the movie as soon as possible, simply for the sake of not being left out of the conversation. It was the rare kind of film that was able to break through into the broader pop culture and be loved just as much by someone who had never heard of it as it was by the fans who were seeing it two or three times in its opening weekend.
Rent on Apple TV
Related:Spider-Man: No Way Home Almost Featured Kraven the Hunter Instead of the Multiverse, Here’s What Happened
Bringing Them Back Now Wouldn’t Be as Special
While there was certainly a lot of work from Sony and Marvel Studios behind the scenes that set the pieces up and positionedNo Way Homeperfectly to become a major hit, there is also an undeniable element of spontaneity to the whole thing. Something about the film just really clicked with audiences, and that’s an element that cannot be perfectly crafted by executives in a boardroom.No Way Homefelt special; it was the kind of movie that you couldn’t believe actually existed, and that brought an element of novelty to the whole experience. It was a movie that hit at the perfect time, as audiences were hungry for the next big cinematic event as the world was exiting the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was also one of the last major Marvel films to capitalize on the goodwill established withAvengers:Endgameand the close of theInfinity Saga. Not only is the MCU in a much different place now, the world as a whole is, and these kinds of comic-book movie events arebecoming rarer by the day.
If the fourth MCUSpider-Manfilm were to bring Maguire and Garfield back once, it would not produce the same incredible results. The success ofNo Way Homeis not that easily replicable. Bringing them back so quickly would not only feel overly contrived and like a blatant cash grab, it would also water downNo Way Homeand make that film feel significantly less special and unique.
It would just be the same thing that we already got, rather than presenting something new for fans to get excited about. TheSpider-Manfranchise works best when it’s innovating and experimenting with new ideas, which is why films likeSpider-Man: Homecoming,Across the Spider-VerseandNo Way Homehave worked as well as they have. Repeating the same ideas ofNo Way Homefor Holland’sSpider-Man 4is about as far from innovation as possible.
Related:Everything We Know About Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (& Why It Didn’t Happen)
Bringing Them into the Venom Universe or Secret Wars
Let’s move beyondSpider-Man 4. There have been a lot of ways in which both Maguire and Garfield have been speculated to return again. Most recently, there has been talk about bringing Garfield into the same universe as theVenomand upcomingMadame WebandKraven the Hunterfilms (we don’t talk aboutMorbius). This could be done a few different ways. That universe could be retroactively confirmed to be the same as theAmazing Spider-Manfilms, establishing that Garfield’s Spider-Man has been the version of the hero that has existed alongside those characters and films all along. Alternatively, just as Michael Keaton’s Vulture from the MCU was transported into theVenomuniverse at the end ofMorbius, Garfield’s Spider-Man could also find himself stuck in a world different from his own.
One of these ideas has almost come to fruition, as recent reports suggested that Garfield was originallyintended to appear in the newMadame Webfilm, though that has now been cut from the final product. Regardless of all this, bringing Garfield’s Spider-Man back in these films may not be as great an idea as it may sound. The reason that version of the character failed in the first place is because the films he was in weren’t very good, and putting him into films likeVenom,Madame WebandKraven the Hunterwould just be returning to the same issue.
These new films from Sony have made many of the same mistakes as theAmazing Spider-Manseries, as they’ve been too corny, poorly written and overly focused on building out a wider world. Bringing Garfield into that would just be an even clearer continuation of theAmazing Spider-Manseries ten years later, with essentially no change to fix the myriad of issues that plagued those films so consistently.
Really, the only place where it would make sense to bring Maguire and Garfield back again is in the upcomingAvengers: Secret Warsfilm, set to release in a few years. While the exact details of that film’s plot are still unknown, it is widely believed that it will be a massive multiversal crossover to bring the Multiverse Saga to an end. Bringing Maguire and Garfield into that story, whether in small or major roles, would undoubtedly be the best option. It’s a story that their involvement would legitimately make sense within, and its separation fromNo Way Homewould still allow that film to maintain what makes it so special.
As much as we love both Maguire and Garfield’s versions of Spider-Man, the best thing for both of them and their legacies would be to stay out of the growing Marvel universe as much as possible going forward. The less we see of them the better, as continuing to come back would quickly lead to overexposure for both of their characters. As of now, they’ve both ended their journeys on great notes withNo Way Home, and to come back once again would risk souring all the good will they’ve built.
