Sony began hinting about replacing Maguire with Jake Gyllenhaal, who happened to be dating Kirsten Dunst at the time. “Columbia felt that Maguire’s reported back problems … were now being used as a threat during negotiations if the actor’s list of demands wasn’t met,” Variety wrote.īut the studio hit back with threats of its own. Industry scuttlebutt had it he was playing hardball with the studio in the hopes of securing a better contract. The story goes like this: In the spring of 2003, shortly before production on the superhero sequel was about to begin, Maguire began making noise about being unready to step back into the Spidersuit due to a back problem exacerbated on the set of Seabiscuit. But it’s probably also a reference to one of the most treasured bits of meta-textual Spider-Man lore: the time Maguire possibly faked a back injury in the hopes of securing a higher payday for Spider-Man 2. What’s the reason for all this? Some might say putting Maguire and Garfield in such a position is its own reward. (Apparently, web-slinging is not great for the lumbars.) Eventually, Garfield-Spidey physically picks up Maguire-Spidey and cracks his back so they can get back to swirling around a CGI sandstorm just as God and Sony Pictures intended.
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But at the height of the big action climax, the plot stops in its tracks so the two elder Spider-statesmen can have a long back-and-forth regarding back pain like they’re 40-something dads at a barbecue. Thanks to some multiverse shenanigans, both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire have returned to reprise their roles as Peter Parker, leading to some wistful notes about the sad inevitability of aging as well as body-horror gags about how Maguire shoots his webs out of mysterious orifices in his wrists.
(The spoilers will truly begin after this paragraph.)įor people who don’t remember Hollywood gossip of the early aughts, there’s a scene in No Way Home that must be totally mystifying. I’m referring, of course, to Tobey Maguire’s back. In fact, for older viewers, that’s the main source of its power: reminding you how you felt in 2002 or 2012, when everything was fun and fresh and new.īut as one of the film’s in-jokes reminds us, not everything felt good back then. Say what you will about Spider-Man: No Way Home - our critic Bilge Ebiri did - but it’s certainly a film plugged into the history of the Spider-Man franchise. Warning: As with nearly everything Vulture writes about Spider-Man: No Way Home, this post spoils plot details of the film’s second half.
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