Even though money usually talks loudest in Hollywood, there was widespread belief in certain circles that the biggest obstacle towards making the massively ambitious Spider-Man: No Way Home a reality would be convincing Tobey Maguire to suit up as Sam Raimi’s Peter Parker.
After all, a voice role in The Boss Baby was his only screen credit since 2014’s Pawn Sacrifice, and outside of his cameo in the opening moments of Tropic Thunder, he’d only appeared in five live-action movies since he last played the friendly neighborhood superhero in Spider-Man 3.
In the end, the 46 year-old did sign on the dotted line to lend support to Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield in the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, and he explained the reasons why during an interview with the aforementioned duo hosted by Deadline.
“I went and had a meeting with Amy and Kevin. Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige. And had talked about… They sort of just teased it. I think Amy was like, ‘We’d love to talk to you, and you you know what this is about.’ And I was like ‘okay, sure. Let’s go chat.’ Maybe you could just give me a little bit of information. But, I don’t know. I gotta say, I was intrigued immediately.
In that conversation, the intention, the kind of love and celebration of these movies, and what it meant i think to Amy and Kevin was was apparent. To me, when artists or people who are um steering the creative process have a kind of authentic, genuine intent of celebration and love, it just was so apparent in both of them that I just wanted to join that.”
While Maguire would have no doubt been compensated very handsomely for his time and effort, it’s reassuring to know that he didn’t want to return to the most high-profile role of his 30-year career to simply say hello, offer up a hefty slice of fan service, and then disappear into the sunset all over again.
The trio of Spideys all got exactly what they wanted out of No Way Home in the end, and so did the fans, who lost their minds at seeing the iconic trio swing into battle together.
