Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
After his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sony now has little excuse for not bringing Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man back again, whether in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 or one of its villain movies. Seven years after The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s underperformance with audiences and critics brought Sony’s fledgling Spider-verse to a premature halt, Garfield donned the costume once again for No Way Home, teaming him up with his both his Spider-Man predecessor and successor, Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland. Holland, of course, remains the Spider-Man of the MCU’s present and future, but could Garfield return in some way as well?
Since release, Spider-Man: No Way Home has broken box office records and proved a major hit with fans, which is in large part thanks to the presence of Maguire and Garfield. That the two former Spider-Men were in No Way Home was hardly a surprise, but nonetheless their returns have proved incredibly popular. Garfield in particular may be the biggest beneficiary: his Spider-Man tenure was less acclaimed than Maguire’s, so he finds a sense of redemption in No Way Home. Garfield’s Peter Parker is arguably the best part of the movie, and beyond just giving him a greater send-off it could lead to another, bigger appearance as the wall-crawler.
After months of lying about his involvement, Garfield himself has opened by about playing Spider-Man in No Way Home, and about potentially reprising the role once more. The actor has never been shy about his love for the character, and Garfield is interested in a Spider-Man return, saying he is “definitely open to something if it felt right.” That adds the actor to the strong viewer interest in seeing him return, with #MakeTASM3 trending on Twitter after No Way Home’s release as part of a campaign to give Garfield’s Spidey another movie. With No Way Home’s box office over $1.5 billion, making it the biggest Spider-Man movie ever, high fan demand, and the actor’s own interest, then it’s hard to see why Sony wouldn’t bring Garfield back for another Spider-Man movie. Really, they have little reason not to.
While Sony’s original The Amazing Spider-Man 3 plans failed, it has since succeeded in launching its own universe of Marvel characters thanks to Venom, which will also include Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. The success of those movies is to be seen, although interest in the much-delayed Morbius, at least, seems a little tepid, but it’s hard to deny said universe will need its own Spider-Man at some point. The villains are all linked by and iconic because of Spider-Man, and to bring them to life but never have any of them face off against Peter would be a disappointment that stunts the growth of Sony’s universe once again. Holland’s Spider-Man could have been a way around this, but No Way Home’s mid-credits scene actively works against this: after Venom: Let There Be Carnage sent Eddie Brock to the MCU, Marvel has sent him straight back. It has kept the symbiote, but rejected the clear setup to have Holland fully integrated with those characters. That means there’s a vacancy, and there’s no obvious reason Garfield can’t appear in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
There are various ways that could be achieved. The clearest would be to do what campaigners have asked: make The Amazing Spider-Man 3. There is, of course, the matter of whether that would make financial sense. The Amazing Spider-Man movies are the web-slinger’s lowest at the box office, but both brought in over $700 million; with the boost from No Way Home and a renewed anticipation that would surely build for the film, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 would likely be a box office success to some degree. Sony’s handling of the universe still isn’t perfect, but they have learned from some past mistakes, while Garfield himself has grown as an actor too (though his performance was never the issue).
Failing a new solo movie, Garfield’s Spider-Man could appear in one of the villains’ outings. Adding Garfield into Venom 3, Morbius 2, Kraven the Hunter, or something yet to be announced would give those franchises an even greater chance of success, allowing Sony to test the waters of a return; if Morbius doesn’t perform at the box office, then it’d only make even more sense. While things are never black and white and there will no doubt be some behind-the-scenes wrangling over contracts and, of course, money, there’s a clear demand from those involved and from audiences to bring Garfield back again after Spider-Man: No Way Home, and creative reasons to do so too (his story does not yet feel done). Sony may yet find an excuse for not making another Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movie, but as it stands it doesn’t really have one.
