If great power comes with great responsibility, then being an actor who has played a beloved superhero comes with inevitable questions about returning to that character. While promoting We Live in Time, his upcoming romantic drama with Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield was asked about his experiences playing Spider-Man.
The Oscar-nominated actor, who played the webbed hero in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel, eventually reprised his role for 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside Tobey Maguire, star of the early-2000s Spider-Man trilogy, and Tom Holland, who assumed the part after Garfield exited the franchise following the Sony hack and an agreement allowing the character to appear in Marvel films.
That headline-making departure is precisely what made Garfield want to suit up one more, as his franchise was “left dangling” when The Amazing Spider-Man 3 got put on ice. “It was really healing for me,” Garfield told Esquire of his third outing as Peter Parker. As rumors of his return circulated in the lead-up to No Way Home, Garfield relished in repeatedly downplaying or outright denying his involvement in the Marvel sequel. “I loved keeping it a secret,” he previously told Vanity Fair. “I was able to get over my ethical, moral dilemma with whether this is a lie that is justifiable. Is this actually a lie, or is this just a fun gift I’m giving to people?”
But would he give Spidey a fourth go-around? “For sure. I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it’s additive to the culture, if there’s a great concept or something that hasn’t been done before that’s unique and odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into,” Garfield told Esquire. “I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”
But Garfield’s dance card is a bit full at the moment. As the publication notes, he’s currently filming two movies—Luca Guadagnino’s “deep psychological dive” After the Hunt alongside Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri, as well as The Magic Faraway Tree, a family film based on a children’s book series that features Claire Foy, Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan, and Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning.
After that, Garfield wants to return to the theater, work with filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Ruben Östlund, and—if his Tick, Tick…Boom! director Lin-Manuel Miranda has his way—pick up a tennis racket to play Roger Federer, Andy Murray, or Andre Agassi, according to Esquire. Above all, “I’m craving . . . a closeness to the earth and nature and other people, local community,” Garfield said—no superhero suit required.
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