Garfield's Wrong About Being Too Old For Spider-Man: His Age Makes It Better

Andrew Garfield has gone on record to say he feels too old to be playing Spider-Man anymore, but the actor couldn't be more wrong. Garfield first portrayed the web-slinger in 2012's reboot of the character, The Amazing Spider-Man. The reboot was a planned trilogy, but after the disappointment felt by many critics and fans over The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the controversial Sony Hack, it was unfortunately scrapped. However, the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Garfield's appearance in it has audiences clamoring for the actor to don the Spidey suit again, and his age isn't the problem he thinks it might be.

No Way Home saw both Garfield and Tobey Maguire return to the role thanks to MCU's Phase 4 multiversal plot. Together, they teamed up to lend Holland's Spidey a hand with the influx of multiverse supervillains, as well as helping him in his grieving process after losing Aunt May after an attack by the Green Goblin. The return of the two older Spider-Man's made for great fan service, as well as interesting storytelling. No Way Home proved that Garfield's feelings of being too old for the character aren't just, and that, actually, his age makes it better.

Andrew Garfield now being on the older side makes for a good Spider-Man future because, so far on the screen, Spidey hasn't really progressed past high school/college. Thus far, there have been three reboots of the character and they all cover near enough the same time span. Spider-Man has accidentally become stuck as a teenage hero (despite how old the actors were playing Spider-Man). If the character could progress past this point and step into a maturer age, it could bring something fresh for the character that hasn't been done onscreen before.

This sense of an older, wiser, more mature Spidey was somewhat explored in No Way Home, which added a new dimension to all three reincarnations of the character and the film was better for it. It broke the mould of strictly following one awkward, teenage Peter Parker as he navigated school and relationships, and instead went beyond into something more meaningful and unique to the character. Garfield's Spidey specifically talked about the loss and guilt he experienced when Gwen died, and how it permanently altered him. Spider-Man disappears for months after Gwen's death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, then returns to fight Rhino and it is assumed all is well, but No Way Home confirmed that wasn't the case. He says he got ''rageful,'' ''stopped pulling punches,'' and that the guilt would live with him forever, and so it would be interesting to see what an older version of the character would look like given this past experience.

If this mature, older, and maybe darker, aspect was harnessed and focused on it could be a successful future for Spider-Man. For example, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse focuses on a young Miles Morales, but also showcases an older Peter B. Parker, who was down on his luck, divorcing MJ and gaining weight, and it was a breath of fresh air for the character. To take this to live-action with Garfield (Sony has to make another film with him) where it could be explored in-depth opens a world of opportunities. Spider-Man could foot new territory, which would be made all the more satisfying due to audiences having already experienced him in his younger years.

What Andrew Garfield might see as a roadblock could be a real opportunity to do something unique with a character that audiences are already well-acquainted with. Spidey's onscreen character arc has always been halted at college, so to explore issues beyond school would open new doors for him. Should he return to the character, the opportunities are definitely there.

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