In many ways the entirety of geek culture – certainly as far as the movies are concerned – is built on giving the people what they want. The Flash exhumed Michael Keaton’s Batman, but left him drifting through the end-of-days haze of a dying cinematic universe. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine returned for one last hurrah in Deadpool & Wolverine, even though we already had his last hurrah in Logan. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought back Patrick Stewart’s Professor X for the umpteenth time, then promptly shredded him into psychic confetti.
And then there was Spider-Man: No Way Home, a movie that mainly seemed to exist to remind us that the original Sony Spidey films were really rather good in places. Has there ever been a better cinematic Spider-Man villain than Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin? Did any of the Marvel films give us an antagonist with the same startling blend of pathos and menace as that delivered by Alfred Molina’s Doc Oc? And what about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the two wall-crawlers we never thought we’d see again, who somehow turned a fan-service cameo into an elegy for the superhero genre itself?
So buzzy was that crowd-pleasing film that it seemed as if the pair were destined to return, if not in continuing adventures within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then surely in episodes that followed on from their own brutally curtailed timelines in the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films. But it’s now been the best part of four years since Maguire and Garfield became viral saints of multiverse sentimentality – digital messiahs for a genre already gasping for air beneath the weight of its own nostalgic excess.
In the intervening period the duo have been treated like ghosts at the banquet, condemned to drift around the edges of Sony’s cinematic multiverse. Madame Web, Morbius and Kraven the Hunter were designed to make audiences forget about Spider-Man and embrace the brilliance of his supporting cast. They all failed.
Ready to come onboard? Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man, 2002. Photograph: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock
Yet rumours have been swirling that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is dead in the water. The studio will play some part in the forthcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but the Tom Holland films – technically joint productions – have always felt spiritually closer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which leaves Sony out in the cold, condemned to release the occasional animated masterpiece about Miles Morales, while remaining absent from the live-action arena on the big screen.
Which is where Maguire and Garfield really ought to come in. Sony may have until recently been far too deep into tales of clairvoyant web-weavers and tragically misunderstood bat scientists to admit audiences only care about Spider-Man. But surely in the absence of any viable alternative options, this stuff is at least worth a look? Maguire told Marvel.com in 2023 that “it would be a ‘yes’” if he were ever asked to reprise the role, adding: “Because why wouldn’t I want to do that?” His co-star in the 00s films, Kirsten Dunst, waxed lyrical earlier this month about her fondness for the idea of returning as Mary Jane Watson, perhaps in a new episode that would see her as mother to Peter Parker’s children. This week, Garfield told fans hankering for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 that he doesn’t believe a new episode is ever going to be a thing, but added: “Sweet of you to want it to happen.”
The sense is that if someone actually bothered to come up with a passable script, they would all come onboard. The reality is that the superhero movie landscape – and in particular, Sony’s increasingly small corner of it – has rarely looked more desperate for a hit, even as DC finally shows signs of life. Marvel’s once unshakeable formula now feels close to exhausted. Deadpool & Wolverine, which triumphed at the box office this summer, succeeded largely because it weaponised nostalgia with a wink and a body count.
In that context, bringing back Maguire or Garfield wouldn’t just be another exercise in fan service, it might be the last trick the genre has left that anyone would actually cheer for. Yes, it would be shamelessly nostalgic, a web spun entirely from deja vu and dimensional crossovers, but Sony has learned the hard way that giving audiences what they never asked for – and would really rather have never witnessed – is not a smart move.
The irony is that new Spider-Man films starring old Spider-Men may now be Sony’s best hope of wringing something worthwhile from the last strand of Spidey IP it still controls. Because even if the result ended up another multiversal tangle of familiar faces and recycled heartstrings, there remains a hankering for this kind of deluxe, limited-edition nostalgia loop – not least because we keep being told we can’t have it.
