‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Trailer: Why Aren’t Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in it?
The Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was officially released if any Marvel Cinematic Universe fans haven’t heard. Through 24 hours of a social media frenzy, Sony Pictures hunted down Twitter posts of a leaked trailer; one by one, each tweet was removed and pasted with a copyright infringement statement. Now that the finished trailer is out, fans noticed two familiar faces weren’t involved: Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire.
Maguire played the original Spider-Man in the early 2000s trilogy and Garfield followed in The Amazing Spider-Man. Their presence in the upcoming MCU Spider-Man became a popular debate, but the trailer doesn’t include them. As a result, fans wonder whether the two will actually star alongside Tom Holland.
What does the new ‘Spider-Man’ trailer show?
Thanks to Mysterio, the public knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. The locals stare at Peter when he is out with MJ, and classmates record and snap photos of him walking down the hall. The new attention complicates his life further when law enforcement interrogates him about Mysterio’s apparent death.
Since Peter isn’t a fan of heavy public attention, he asks Dr. Strange for help. Strange casts a spell to erase Peter’s identity from the public eye, but he also may scrub the minds of Peter’s closest circle. After a complication arises with the spell, Peter and Strange damage space-time, meeting with the multiverse.
Viewers see a succession of returning villains throughout the trailer, including a lightning bolt and a pumpkin bomb. The bolt may indicate Electro, whereas the pumpkin bomb suggests Green Goblin. Not to mention, though, Marvel saved the best for last–Doctor Octopus shows his face with his sinister line, “Hello, Peter.”
Why Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield aren’t in the trailer
The two former Spider-Men are not in the teaser trailer, yet the multiverse is a significant part of the movie. Fans think that if Electro, Green Goblin, and Dr. Octopus are in the film, the other Spider-Men should be too. Octopus was Maguire’s enemy in Spider-Man 2; Electro was Garfield’s nemesis in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
So, are Garfield and Maguire actually returning to the screen as Spider-Man?
In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2021, Fallon asked Holland if the rumors about Garfield and Maguire’s return were true. Holland denied them.
“It would be amazing if they were because they haven’t told me that yet,” Holland said. “And, I am Spider-Man, and I’ve read the script from the beginning to the end. So it would be a miracle if they could have kept that from me. But at the moment, there is no cameo from the two boys.”
Nevertheless, fans aren’t throwing in the towel yet. Many still believe that Garfield and Maguire will appear in the film because of the intertwined universes.
Even Fallon challenged Holland by asking, “But [the studios] keep things from you, don’t they?”
Maguire and Garfield’s movies differ from the MCU’s
Maguire kicked off the future of Spider-Man films. The first installment of the Sam Raimi trilogy premiered in 2002, with an all-star cast. Kirsten Dunst was the first MJ (Mary Jane, to be exact), Willem Dafoe portrayed Norman Osborn (aka Green Goblin), J.K. Simmons played J. Jonah Jameson, and James Franco was the first Harry Osborn.
The trilogy ends with Harry dying and Maguire’s Parker reconciling with MJ after the symbiote turned him into evil.
Garfield’s 2011 The Amazing Spider-Man was a different take on the original. Instead of MJ, Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone) becomes Parker’s girlfriend. The two movies focus on their relationship and Peter’s struggle to keep his promise to her father, Captain Stacey, to stay away from Gwen.
Those who watched Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 remember the ending–Gwen’s death. Sony never added a third film.
Whether Maguire and Garfield are returning or not, fans will have to wait until the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home to find out.
