First Tobey Maguire, then Andrew Garfield, and now Tom Holland; Spider-Man has been one versatile character, played by three different actors in the 21st century. From the famous Spider-Man trilogy (Maguire) to the not-so-successful Amazing Spider-Man (Garfield), and now everyone’s favorite, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (Holland), it has been quite a ride. One that makes you wonder, why did Spider-Man change actors so often?
The real reason Spider-Man was rebooted so many times was that it is a lucrative character, Spider-Man 3 didn’t perform well, and the MCU wanted rights to an important hero of their universe. All these reasons combined led to 10 Spider-Man films being made in the twenty-first century.
All the reasons Spider-Man changed actors so often:
A lucrative character Sony wanted to cash:
There is no doubt that Spider-Man might be one of the most fan-loved superheroes to exist. No matter how many times he is revived, people love watching his story unfold. Especially the youngsters who relate to Spider-Man due to his age and him being a high school student.
Therefore, the first Spider-Man films, including Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, had immense success at the box office. The first film made about $821 million at the box office, which is, to this day, hard to achieve. The second and third films in the trilogy made a combined total of $2.5 billion.
As is evident, Sony soon realized that Spider-Man was a lucrative character and kept bringing him back to life every three or four years.
The failure of Spider-Man 3:
Even though the trilogy starring Tobey Maguire was a hit, you’d be surprised to know that Spider-Man 3 was considered a failure. For a running time of just two hours and fifteen minutes, the film featured three different villains for Spider-Man to fight off against. The film was not met with a positive response from critics or fans.
However, a fourth movie was still a huge chance, and Sony was all prepared to release one. But Sam Raiki, the director of the trilogy, was not satisfied with the script that was coming along. He did not want a repeat of Spider-Man 3. When he thought he couldn’t achieve it, the movie was canceled.
Sony already had a reboot planned which came to the cinema in the form of The Amazing Spider-Man. This time, Andrew Garfield was cast because the director, Marc Webb, wanted someone younger to play the high school Peter Parker and Maguire, being 35 years old, could not fit the role anymore.
MCU wanted the rights to the character:
As we know, ever since Tobey Maguire, Sony has held the rights to the character Spider-Man. However, after the MCU’s huge success with their other superhero films, they wanted to introduce the character in their universe. Yet, Sony wasn’t letting go of its rights.
Therefore, Disney and Sony came to an agreement, where the former can use the character, but the rights remain with the latter. And that is how MCU was able to introduce Spiderman as their own. Now, they couldn’t use the same actors that had performed the role previously, and so Tom Holland was cast.
For more reasons as to why Spider-Man actors change so often, you can watch this video:
These three reasons led to three different actors playing the same character in years. However, we can’t deny that each did an excellent job at the role!
