All Sections

Spider-Man 3 could see the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield – but have the rumours got legs?

Rumours abound of an all-star cast, but can it really be true that we’ll see the whole band back together again? Our Spidey-senses are tingling…

The internet – or, forgive me, the web – is abound with rumours of an all-star returning cast for the third film in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man series.

Apparently, we’ll not just see old villains such as Doctor Octopus or Electro reprise their roles – we’ll even see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield don the red and blue suit again to constitute a veritable neighbourhood of friendly Spider-Men all in the one blockbuster movie.

But are the rumours too good to be true? Here’s a look at the evidence we’ve got so far…

Back in October, Jamie Foxx confirmed in a since-deleted Instagram post that he would return as villain Electro (or in the actor’s actual words: “I won’t be blue in this one!! But a thousand percent badass!!!”) It was a bit of a surprise when the news broke, seeing as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was far from the best outing of the webbed hero.

The rumour that’s really kickstarted this latest flurry of speculation was that of Alfred Molina returning as Doctor Octopus. The British actor was photographed on set, so we can chalk that up as another certainty – and given the scientific background of the good Doctor, rest assured that he won’t start making up percentages to prove how cool he is.

These two castings were both confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, which has a good reputation for reliability. But now we move into more speculative territory…

In the wake of Molina’s return, Collider was the sole source to report that Andrew Garfield will definitely make a return, as will Kirsten Dunst, while they think it’s likely that Emma Stone and Tobey Maguire will also come back (the latter is in contract negotiations, and the former will be in the film “pregnancy permitting” – an unconfirmed rumour about her personal life). Despite the fact that it’s set the internet ablaze with nostalgia, we’d take it with a pinch of salt for now.

One of the best circumstantial pieces of evidence in favour of the crossover event is the phenomenal success of the animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, which won critical acclaim and made a fortune at the box office. The flick followed Miles Morales as he became Spider-Man within a shared universe that included Spider-People from other dimensions – even including “Spider-Ham”, a porky pig that was also bitten by a radioactive spider. Suddenly now it doesn’t seem so outlandish that Tobey Maguire could return to the movies after only one credit since 2014 (for, erm, The Boss Baby). It’s hardly surprising that movie executives rubbed their hands with greed glee at the prospect of a live-action film that could replicate this same success. 

On the other hand, fan favourite JK Simmons has already reprised his iconic role as J Jonah Jameson, the gruff newspaper editor, in the current series of Spider-Man films, having previously played the role opposite Tobey Maguire. There was no reference to a multi-verse when he returned to champ on cigars (and Spider-Man’s sensitive feelings), so could it just be that some well-regarded characters will simply return without all the hoopla of different dimensions and other potential Peter Parkers?

What do you think of the casting rumours? Is it all just a web of lies, or will the former Spideys really come crawling back? Let us know in the poll below:

 

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *