Why Andrew Garfield's Return In Spider-Man: No Way Home Is So Iconic

Watching Andrew Garfield come back as Spider-Man in No Way Home was one of the best moments I've experienced in a cinema for a long time. That might partly be because theaters had been closed for a good two years, but beyond that, the subtext and meaning behind the scene carried much more than a simple cameo. I want to break down why Garfield's return is so iconic and all of the factors that fed into what is very much seen as his rise and fall. The whole thing is pretty much an underdog story, but don't call it a comeback, because the guy has always been excellent. We just didn't know what we had until it was gone.

Andrew Garfield was seen as the black sheep of the Spider-Man family

Tobey Maguire had one of the best comic book trilogies of all time, and though his third film is often looked down upon, the first two helped save the genre at a time when audiences were still reeling from Batman and Robin. Maguire was a big part of people's childhoods, and his first film especially recaptured the origin story from the comics in an exciting, modern way.

Sadly, Maguire's fourth film was shelved and Sony rebooted the character with Garfield, whose first film released just five years after Spider-Man 3. The creative team leaned too heavily into the great reboot approach that was fashionable at the time because of The Dark Knight, and it didn't really fit the character. They also had the difficult task of retelling an origin story that had already been nailed.

I do think Garfield's first film has aged well over time, but when it was initially released it felt very much like a movie nobody asked for.

The Amazing Spider-Man films struggled against Marvel's rise

While all this was going on, Marvel Studios had built out phase one of their characters, and in the same year Sony launched Garfield's first film, The Avengers completely changed the comic book genre. Fox had also just released X-Men: First Class the year before, and it felt like Sony was trying to ride the coattails of everyone else.

Two years later came The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which, though enjoyable, felt overstuffed. You had the Electro story, the Green Goblin story, and Peter trying to solve his parents' disappearance, which made it feel kind of middling. It also attempted to tackle the death of Gwen Stacy, and though I absolutely loved this in the film, it disappointed a lot of fans at the time.

The person shortchanged in the role was Garfield, and it felt like he was getting the wrong material rather than actually being bad. For me, he felt like he had the best costume, but he was competing in a world where audiences expected comic book films to all be connected, and at the time Maguire was still held up as the best of the best.

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was scrapped and Garfield was pushed aside

Sony announced The Amazing Spider-Man 3 at a Brazil Comic-Con, but the film was scrapped not long after. It would be another two years until Tom Holland appeared as the character in Civil War, and Garfield was brushed under the rug as the person who neither started anything nor had a connected universe.

The internet loves to rally for those it thinks deserve a second chance, and Garfield's version of Spider-Man gained a big following in much the same way.

The way the reveal scene is filmed builds toward one big "aha" moment

Garfield's return got the biggest reaction when I was in the theater, and though that might not have been the case in every cinema, I think it was probably the biggest talking point upon leaving the film.

In the scene, Ned and MJ wish they could find where Peter Parker is, and in doing so they open a doorway to one of the versions brought across during the spell. Down a dark and shadowy alleyway, we see the silhouette of Spider-Man slowly jogging toward the camera. You can only slightly make out his suit, and on a first watch this is done deliberately to make you squint and try to recognize who it is.

As he jumps through the portal, you recognize the suit, and then just as you have that aha moment, he unmasks and reveals his face. Garfield even poses and breathes like it's the end of an amazing dance routine or a magic trick in which the performer has just pulled off the impossible. Though many of us knew he was coming back, the moment was still incredible, and it worked outside the context of the film too. I just wish we could see Peter now.

Garfield's public denials fed straight into the surprise

If you visited the internet at any point in 2021, you probably saw that Garfield was shown in full costume on set filming what was clearly his comeback. He denied being in the film at every opportunity, and it became a meme where he kept insisting he wasn't in it. "I heard about it and I did see it, and it's a photoshop, I promise you, I am not the werewolf," Garfield said at the time.

Without seeing the movie, nobody could disprove it, and with deepfakes at a point where something like this could plausibly be faked given enough time, people kept pressing him. He never budged, instead saying he was looking forward to the movie. This definitely helped build toward the moment on screen.

From here MJ very much becomes the voice of the audience. She can't believe it's happening, to the point that she even throws bread at him, and the audience is kind of stuck questioning right alongside her whether it's really him. We want to see him be Spider-Man, climb on the ceiling, do something crazy, because it's a scene you can't really believe is actually happening before your eyes.

Setting the reunion in a home instead of a big action scene deepens it

They could have brought Garfield and Maguire back in a big action moment at the Statue of Liberty. Instead they toned things down, put it in a home setting, and brought both of them back there together.

Our homes are very much where we grew up watching these characters, and it's where a lot of us fell in love with them. I used to go around my grandma's house every Saturday and sit and watch superhero shows while she made dinner for me and my sister. Because of memories like that, I massively relate to the setting, and it's almost like they're bringing Garfield back into the place where I fell in love with Spider-Man.

Ned's grandma really adds to the scene too, and there are several generations present in that moment, showing how Spider-Man has touched people across generations.

Getting both Garfield and Maguire back was a hard-won achievement for Marvel Studios

This was so difficult for Marvel Studios to pull off, and now they have the clout to do it. There were a lot of things they had to work through to get the old cast members back, since both Garfield and Maguire were people who didn't exactly leave the role on the best of terms.

In Kevin Feige we trust: he managed to get both Garfield and Maguire back and have them interact with one another in meaningful ways. The pair could have both been reduced to cameos that pop in and leave, but they have quite big parts in a movie that was very much about Holland's version finally stepping into the role.

The return closes several arcs for Garfield's version of Peter Parker

Garfield's return is iconic because it not only rights the wrongs of how he left the role, but it also closes several arcs for his character. He was someone who watched the love of his life die in front of him because of his own actions, so his version of Peter getting to save MJ really means a lot.

It all expands from this moment, and I love how it all comes together. From here on out, Garfield's return is iconic.

What did you make of that reveal scene when you first saw it in the theater?