Spider-Man: No Way Home made nearly $2 billion at the box office. It’s a feat reserved for big MCU crossovers from the Avengers franchise. But No Way Home was a crossover adventure of its own. The reason fans flocked to see it in cinemas when it came out concerned all the rumors that flooded the web in the year preceding the premiere.
Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would return to their Spider-Man roles for No Way Home. They would assist Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in getting the job done, whatever that job might be. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was also in the movie, as were most of the villains from the Maguire and Garfield universes.
But there’s no question that the other Peter Parker variants were key ingredients to No Way Home’s success.
It’s no wonder Sony would want Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back for Spider-Man 4. That’s what plenty of rumors said. They also noted that Sony and Marvel were at odds about the former’s desire to make the next sequel as big as No Way Home.
More recent rumors claim that’s not necessarily going to happen. There could be a way to explain why these two particular versions of Spider-Man would return to the MCU, yes. But more interesting is the prospect of seeing Maguire and Garfield appear in Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) movies. Mind you, some spoilers might follow.
Holland meeting Maguire and Garfield in No Way Home works because it’s all a big coincidence. We’ve seen these Spider-Man variants in their respective universes before. Now we’re seeing them together by accident. A series of unfortunate events led to Maguire and Garfield being transplanted to the MCU’s main reality.
If you somehow make the same three Spider-Man versions meet again in Spider-Man 4, you would need a better explanation.
A well-known Marvel insider said recently that Sony and Marvel might have one. It’s equal parts silly and brilliant. Supposedly, Strange’s spell had unwanted side effects: People in Tobey and Andrew’s universes do not remember them.
That’s the kind of problem that would make both Spider-Man variants get creative to meet Tom Holland’s Spidey again and fix things.
I’d love to see such a story. Say, a movie where either Maguire or Garfield’s Spider-Man would figure out how to get to the MCU. Sony might never make one. But if a different insider’s claim is accurate, the studio wants more of Maguire and Garfield in its SSU projects.
It’s no secret that Sony desperately wants to turn the SSU into a universe of movies as successful as the MCU. Sony is failing spectacularly at that, with movies like Morbius and Madam Web being the best examples of that.
Those movies should never have been made. That’s ignoring the fact that Sony doesn’t have titular Spider-Man heroes of its own. I’m not counting the Spider-Verse Spider-People here, which are yet to move to live-action movies.
There’s no non-MCU Spider-Man to fight Venom or Kraven the Hunter. The latter will appear in a movie of the same name in December.
That’s the universe of stories where Maguire and Garfield could come in.
I’m speculating only, but it’s all based on Daniel Richtman’s recent scoop that Sony wants the actors to return to the Spider-Man roles for new stories featuring their realities. Also, Sony wants the two Spider-Man variants to be the key players in a multiverse movie of their own, which would be separate from the MCU.
This might be exactly what the SSU needs, provided Sony can make a great movie. So far, Sony is losing that battle. Interestingly enough, having Maguire and Garfield appear in a new film that’s not the MCU’s Spider-Man 4 could also help the MCU.
Rumors also say Marvel wants Maguire and Garfield in Avengers: Secret Wars. For that to happen, we first need an explanation as to why these two Spider-Man variants get to see Tom Holland and his universe again.
