“Spider-Man: No Way Home” director Jon Watts recently revealed to Collider that Reddit helped shape one of the blockbuster’s defining moments: The long-awaited returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Watts saw fan-created concept art on Reddit that aligned with his original idea of bringing the former Spider-Man actors back onscreen when Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is at his lowest following the death of Aunt May. The director knew in that moment he’d need more of a surprise.
“There had been rumors that Tobey and Andrew were going to be in the movie, and this is while we’re shooting,” Watts said. “We were writing the script, and we were working on where we wanted to reveal the guys, and it always seemed like Peter’s going to be sad because Aunt May has just died, and that the portals are going to open, and the two Spider-Men are going to step out. It’s probably a rooftop somewhere. It’s all sort of hazy. You’re still trying to figure it out.”
“Then I was on Reddit, and I was looking at people who had already made fan art of, ‘This is probably what it’s going to be like when the two Spider-Men get revealed.’ It was on a rooftop. It was sad, two Doctor Strange portals were open and two Spider-Men are stepping out,” Watts continued. “I was like, ‘Well, we can’t do that. If that’s exactly what everyone thinks we’re going to do, we absolutely can’t do that.’”
That’s when Watts came up with the scene that made it into the movie. As he remembered: “I was like, ‘Probably having the two Spider-Men appear at Ned’s Filipino grandma’s house in Queens.’ I don’t think anyone was doing fan art of that on Reddit. It made perfect sense in the story because it’s kind of the first time we leave Peter’s narrative. We don’t know what’s happened to [Tom’s Peter]. We’re with Ned, we’re with MJ. They have to lay low. Where are they going to go? Ned’s grandma’s house. So, we built this whole scene around that.”
The returns of Maguire and Garfield helped power “Spider-Man: No Way Home” to $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office, a record sum for the post-COVID era until James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” came along and earned $2.3 billion. Maguire has already expressed interest in returning again, saying: “If these guys called me and said, ‘Would you show up tonight to hang out and goof around?’ or ‘Would you show up to do this movie or read a scene or do a Spider-Man thing?’ it would be a ‘yes!’ Because why wouldn’t I want to do that?”
The same goes for Garfield, who has said on multiple occasions since “No Way Home” opened in theaters that he would love to play Spider-Man again under the right circumstances.
“It would have to be very weird,” Garfield said at Middle East Film & Comic Con earlier this year. “I would like to do something very strange. Something very unique, and offbeat and surprising, kind of like the creative freedom they have with the animated ‘Spider-Verse’ movies.”
Garfield added in a separate interview with Esquire: “For sure, I would 100% 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. I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”
Holland is confirmed to be coming back as the web-slinger in Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which is set for release in July 2026.