“I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." - Tom Holland as Peter Parker (Spider-Man)

I honestly don't think it took much convincing for Andrew to return.

A chance to star in an MCU film, working directly under Fiege and being part of a once in a lifetime crossover event. A chance at redemption. Something rarely seen in the genre.

There were also rumors last year that Tobey was the holdout.

A lot of users on this forum even refused to believe they would go into production, without all the key players locked in. Holland pretty much confirmed that's exactly what happened.

 

The reasons for Garfield returning that you point to can easily applied to Maguire’s motive for returning as his last Spider-Man film, while it made a lot of money, was poorly received by fans and audiences so this movie could also be seen by him as his redemption on his part to say goodbye to role properly. As you know, rumors may or may not be true. I don’t discount the possibility that Holland was talking about Tobey but I could also see why Garfield would be unsure, or undecided about returning to a role he was willing(and relieved) to move on from.

 

I honestly don't think Maguire cares about any of that.

He's never been sentimental towards the role. He's an actor and it was a job to him. Which is perfectly fine.

He has a history of playing hardball over his salary. The same probably happened here.

 

Fair points, now that you think about it is more than likely that Maguire was the one holding things up than Garfield; all I’m saying is I could see why Garfield would have second thoughts about returning since he seems far more content just being a fan. All and all, no matter who held up something, all that matters in the end is that it all worked out in the end. Both Tobey and Andrew are back for this movie.

 

Really? I actually took the opposite especially when you hear Emma talk about how hurt he was not to be able to continue and how it ending. Andrew more so then Tom or Tobey loved playing this role. There was a lot of politics going on a the time and it wasn’t the easiest experience for him. All that being said, from fan interactions to how he speaks in interviews, the dude seems to just geek out when discussing Spider-Man. Granted I’m a massive fanboy for the dude…but to me he always seemed the most genuine out of the bunch when it came for his love of the character.

Tobey just shows up to work and go home. He could do without all the interactions and so on as I’ve always gathered that he more excited about having a big acting role then playing the actual character where as with Tom and particularly Andrew, they just truly love the character of Spider-Man.

 

This.

Like I’ve mentioned Tobey never came off as sentimental towards the character. He honesty seemed as if he could care less about all the fan stuff that comes along with a superhero movie. It was a job to him and a job that he did well. Nothing wrong with that at all. It is what it is. I’m glad he’s back.

Does the comic book geek in me have more love for the fan boyish persona of someone like Garfield? Of course. However at the end of the day, I’m just glad they are both back.

 

Andrew I dont think it would be hard to get him back. Like said already he loves the character and I think is issue with the movies he was in was how much the studio interfered with the movies and how much that hurt the movies. That was even a problem with spiderman 3 studio interferences.

 

Hot take suggestion here that will never happen for a franchise like this with all its caretakers and high profile but if they gave Andrew Garfield the keys to make his own standalone Spidey movie where he and the creative team are left alone and Andrew was heavily involved creatively as well and do things he's really interested in for the movie, that would make for an interesting time to say the least.

 

Wait until he see’s how big that money truck they inevitably roll to his home is!

 

This is becoming confusing then, because: Tom Holland says he wants to take a break from acting and 'focus on starting a family'

 

Tom Holland is just trying to get paid more. He will be returning.

 

Tom was given a lot more dramatic material to work with, and he absolutely gave it his all this film. One of my favorite scenes was at the end when he's talking to MJ at the coffee shop and he notices her band aid. The look on his face, the bittersweet smile, leading to Peter making the final decision to not say anything about their relationship - that was emotionally moving for me.

I understand people were reasonably peeved about Tom's Peter up until this point feeling less like the Spider-Man they're familiar with, especially since a lot of Tom's Peter characterization and world was built around trying not to retread things that past Spider-Man films did - but with No Way Home, in hindsight I can see now and find it a pretty genius move to use the shared universe aspect to space out Tom!Peter's character development over several appearances in what is essentially a drawn out origin story into being Spider-Man utilizing completely different elements, instead of doing THE typical Spider-Man origin story. Raimi!Peter and Webb!Peter's movies were built around the trilogy model with the next movie not necessarily being a sure thing, so their development was focused and "condensed" in that they pretty much had to learn their lessons and be Spider-Man a lot sooner (of course, not having any other heroes around in their movies means they can't be anything but solo heroes by default, which helps their perception as being independent heroes compared to Tom!Peter). This version of the "origin" lets Tom!Peter be a Spider-Man that can play with some cool toys (like having multiple Spidey suits and hanging out with other heroes) in his high school era until it's time to grow out of it as he moves onto college and becomes an adult. I'm not sure if Marvel would do this if they had 100% control of Spider-Man from the start, but judging from their treatment of Tobey!Peter and Andrew!Peter, I think it's absolutely safe to say that they understand Spider-Man as a character and this path for Tom!Peter was a deliberate divergence from a typical Spider-Man portrayal.

Bring on the college trilogy, and hope that Marvel makes good on their promise for Tom!Peter to behave as an independent Spider-Man.

 

It's a testament to how good Holland is in the role that he was still able to hold his own even with Tobey and Andrew in the fray.