Tobey Maguire Returning To His Greatest Role?
In an interview published in a new book, Tobey Maguire shows interest in playing Spider-Man again.
Tobey Maguire has expressed interest in possibly playing Spider-Man again. As MovieWeb reports in an excerpt from the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home: The Official Movie Special book, Maguire is quoted as saying, “‘Would you show up to do this movie or read a scene or do a Spider-Man thing?’, it would be a ‘yes!'” indicating that he would be open to future adventures as the wall-crawler.
Tobey Maguire was the first actor to play Marvel’s most famous superhero on the big screen in 2002’s Spider-Man. He went on to star in a whole trilogy of Sam Raimi-helmed Spider-Man movies that, for many fans, are the definitive version of Peter Parker. Maguire hung up the blue and red tights after Spider-Man 3‘s disastrous production and Sony’s decision not to go forward with a planned Spider-Man 4.
Fans were lukewarm to Maguire’s replacement Andrew Garfield. Garfield starred in the two Amazing Spider-Man films before Sony again decided to reboot the character. Tom Holland’s portrayal of the web-slinger in several MCU films proved to be a hit with fans, but many still judged his performance against the one they saw as the one true Spider-Man: Tobey Maguire.
Luckily for Maguire diehards everywhere, Tobey returned to the role of Spider-Man for the 2021 smash hit Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie also brought back ultimate Maguire foil Willem Dafoe as the villainous Green Goblin, along with Andrew Garfield’s iteration of the character via some multiverse shenanigans.
Positive fan response to No Way Home was unprecedented. The movie brought in close to $2 billion worldwide and is currently the seventh highest-grossing movie of all time. No Way Home‘s box office achievement was thanks in no small part to the return of Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man.
Given the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sony and Disney would be crazy not to ask Maguire to suit up again. Now that the Cider House Rules actor has expressed his willingness to return to the role that made him famous, another movie featuring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man is all but inevitable.
How Maguire will return is anyone’s guess. There is no shortage of directions Sony could go in. One option would be to capitalize on one of the aspects of No Way Home that received the most praise, the chemistry on screen between Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
A buddy movie where the two Spider-Men trade quips back and forth while pummeling bad guys would be an instant hit at the box office.
Then there’s the safer, slightly more boring option: have Maguire appear as Spider-Man in another cameo in someone else’s movie. The MCU’s Phase 4 was all about the multiverse, and Phase 5 is expected to continue on the same trajectory. It wouldn’t be out of the question for Tobey Maguire to pop up in the next Avengers or something similar.
There’s one way to bring back Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man that would blow fans’ minds and practically be a license to print money. Have Sam Raimi direct another film set in his original Spider-Man universe. It’s actually not as unlikely as it sounds.
Sam Raimi also made his triumphant return to superhero movies with the 2022 MCU blockbuster Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. Reception for the film was fairly positive though it wasn’t as well received as the universally beloved Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now that both Raimi and Maguire have dipped their toes in the MCU, could a return to the Raimiverse be far behind?
No matter how Tobey Maguire returns as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, fans are likely to eat it up like it was a pie from Joe’s Pizza.
