Tom Holland is crushing a few multiverse dreams today. The actor, in an interview with Esquire (via IGN), has denied the rumors that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will be reprising their roles as Spider-Man in the upcoming Spider-Man 3, as the film is currently known. The film is speculated to dive into multiverses with Doctor Strange playing a role, and rumors had run wild that this meant a return of some sort for the previous two Spidey actors.
“No, no, they will not be appearing in this film,” Holland said when asked about the two actors returning for the film. “Unless they have hidden the most massive piece of information from me, which I think is too big of a secret for them to keep from me. But as of yet, no. It’ll be a continuation of the Spider-Man movies that we’ve been making.”
Reports of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning started cropping up months ago, but there’s been no actual confirmation of that fact. The rumor was further buoyed by the fact that a host of actors who played villains in previous films will be returning to their roles, including Jamie Foxx as Electro and Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus. The fact that the film’s plot is said to be building out the MCU multiverse alongside Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness makes it even more believable that the two actors would return, especially since Sony had such wild success with a multi-Spider-Man team up in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Of course, it is entirely possible that Tom Holland is lying or that the cameos have been kept secret from him and the two actors will only appear briefly and were filmed separately. Holland is known to be a bit of a blabbermouth, and the studio could be hedging its bets. If the two previous web-slingers never take off their masks, then they could be entirely CGI and only voices would be needed, meaning Holland could be out of the loop. Spider-Man 3 is still in production as well, so it could be that the studio just hasn’t told Holland about it at all and he’ll show up to set one day filming with them. However, Marvel loves to misdirect and even goes as far as changing how scenes look in trailers to throw people off, so this just being a big, coordinated lie is probably the best explanation if it isn’t the truth. Although, we also need to face that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield very well could just not be in Spider-Man 3.
Spider-Man 3Â is set to release on Dec. 17, 2021.
