‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’: Andrew Garfield Describes Playing Peter Parker Again as ‘Incredibly Spiritual’
Marvel fans everywhere freaked out when Andrew Garfield reprised his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. While his original movies weren’t received very well by critics or fans, many took to the actor’s performance as Spider-Man. And now that the secret is finally out, Garfield is free to talk about his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ featured the return of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire
The multiverse tore open in Spider-Man: No Way Home due to the MCU’s Peter Parker interfering with Doctor Strange’s spell to make everyone forget Peter is Spider-Man. So, instead, everyone across universes who knew Spider-Man’s identity started to cross over to the MCU. This included the return of many notorious villains from past Spider-Man movies, including Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus.
As a surprise, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parkers appeared on Earth-616 as well. Together, all three Peters reformed the villains instead of sending them back to their worlds, where they would die. And, at the end of the movie, they return to their respective universes.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was full of iconic moments between Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire. And all three actors are excited to discuss the movie with the world.
Andrew Garfield opens up about his experience on the set of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’
During an interview with Variety, Andrew Garfield answered questions about playing Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. And to start the discussion, the actor revealed why he agreed to be in the movie.
“I wasn’t expecting to ever have a conversation again about potentially playing Peter Parker,” Garfield shared. “I felt very excited just to be a fan again. But I got this call from Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige and Jon Watts with this idea. It was immediately undeniable. It sounded incredibly fun, incredibly spiritual — trippy and thematically interesting. On a base level, as a Spider-Man fan, just the idea of seeing three Spider-Men in the same frame was enough.”
He added, “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. We talked a lot about brotherhood and about what it is to be the older brother, younger brother, and the middle brother.”
“There’s also a thing of seeing someone you love walking down a path that you’ve already walked down, and you know it doesn’t lead to the place where you ultimately meant to go. That character is isolated in his emotional experience and physical experience.”
Garfield continued, “But what happens when that aloneness gets blasted open, and you come to realize that you’ve never been alone and there are other brothers going through the exact same thing? That’s a big spiritual journey to go on, man. And then we just milked out all the fun that we could possibly have.”
The actor praises the scene where his character saves MJ
Andrew Garfield also discussed how his Peter catches Zendaya’s MJ with Variety. The moment directly parallels the ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when Peter is unable to save Gwen after she falls and, tragically, dies.
“My Spider-Man got to save his younger brother’s romantic relationship, potentially,” Garfield said. “And to heal the most traumatic moment of his own life through doing it for his younger brother. Making sure that he didn’t have the same fate, there’s something cosmically beautiful about that. It meant getting a second chance at saving Gwen.”
The actor added, “I will say the image of my catching MJ — that was really beautiful and it kind of sold me on the whole thing.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home, starring Andrew Garfield, is now playing in theaters.
