Andrew Garfield Was Jealous He Didn’t Get to Be a Part of Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ Team: ‘It Killed Me’
The Marvel hero Spider-Man was played by actor Andrew Garfield in the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man. But when Garfield saw what Marvel accomplished with the superhero film The Avengers, he hated not being included in the group.
Andrew Garfield was jealous he wasn’t a part of ‘The Avengers’
Actor Tom Holland found himself in a position that Garfield wanted to be in when the latter sported the Spider-Man costume. Holland made his debut as Spider-Man in the film Captain American: Civil War, teaming up with Marvel’s Avengers right out of the gate. Since then, Holland’s Spider-Man has been an integral part of the superhero group, having appeared in both Infinity War and Endgame.
Before Holland’s turn, Garfield had just gotten started with the character in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. That same year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned the comic book movie genre upside down by releasing its historic Avengers movie. Garfield was as much of a fan as many who first saw the movie in theaters. But he couldn’t help wish he was a part of the franchise.
“I saw it, and I was blown away. And I’m going to see it again this weekend. I have no problem adding to the amount of money it’s making,” Garfield said in a 2012 interview with Vulture. “Joss Whedon is a genius, and it’s an incredible cast. I was very, very jealous, and I wanted to jump on the screen and play with them. It killed me that I wasn’t in it, but I understand why, and I’m not insulted.”
Andrew Garfield petitioned for his Spider-Man to join Marvel and the Avengers
Garfield had been advocating for his Spider-Man to join the Avengers for a while. He floated out the possibility during a 2013 appearance at Comic Con (via Uproxx).
“I’d like to see him with the Avengers,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be awesome? Just sayin’.”
Garfield’s role as Spider-Man was short-lived after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn’t meet expectations. He was well aware that his character would be recast in the MCU and join the Avengers. Still, he was more than happy to hand off Spider-Man to another actor. The actor looked forward to witnessing Spider-Man join the Avengers as a fan.
“Exactly, yeah,” Garfield once told Uproxx about watching another Spider-Man actor. “And I’ve been petitioning to hook up with Marvel since the beginning, so I’m really glad they’re finally doing it.”
Andrew Garfield didn’t believe his Spider-Man would get along with this Avenger
Garfield’s Spider-Man eventually did join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a way after making his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Due to Marvel’s new cinematic multiverse, there could even be a slim possibility of Garfield’s characters returning to interact with the broader MCU.
Some fans have wondered how Garfield’s Spider-Man would fair with the rest of the Avengers. But there was one Marvel superhero Garfield felt his Peter Parker wouldn’t initially get along with.
“I definitely think Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man would be pretty suspect of MCU Iron Man. I think he would be a little turned off by the excess, the billionaire, trillionaire status of Iron Man. I think it would rub my version of Spider-Man the wrong way,” Garfield said in a 2022 interview with GQ. “But maybe there could be some influence there. Maybe my Peter Parker could wake Tony Stark up to his own egoic drives a little bit. We’ll never know. We’ll literally never know.”
