Tobey Maguire Turned the Page
“I will always be Spider-Man.”
For a while, it seemed like Tobey Maguire retired from acting. After capping Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy in 2007, Maguire’s roles on screen were pretty sparse until 2013. He briefly cameoed in Tropic Thunder in 2008, swung (and missed) for the Oscars with Brothers in 2009, and swiftly gave up on indie dramedies after The Details in 2011. It was a pretty spotty record for a Hollywood mega-star over the course of five years, but understandable when you consider he was coming off the troubled denouement of Hollywood’s to-date most influential superhero mega-franchise and the biggest one since the Tim Burton Batman endeavor.
In 2013, he did dance a dalliance with what Tobey Maguire, Stately, Seasoned Character Actor could look like. Another failed Oscars push as Bobby Fischer in Pawn Sacrifice, a supporting role in Jason Reitman’s pic, Labor Day (not a Garry Marshall prequel), a turn as the great Nick Carraway (opposite his buddy, DiCaprio) in Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby. That was only the big screen, though. Maguire also headlined the underappreciated IFC miniseries, The Spoils of Babylon, a show that garnered critical attention for seemingly everyone but him.
With this two-year explosion of prolific performances, it seemed like Maguire had perhaps found a lane for himself on a post-Peter Parker planet. But whether through disinterest in the craft, hemming and hawing from the craftspeople, or the absence of a need for money, Maguire dropped off our screens altogether for well over half a decade.
Yes, he belonged to the early-2000s group of leading actors who were turned into stars by virtue of the franchises they helmed. But we’d already seen Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) rely on their immense wealth to pursue bizarre passion projects that could receive funding solely because their names were attached to them. Maguire, though? He didn’t appear in a single film that wasn’t about an animated, infantile CEO from 2015 to 2020.
It was inconvenient that this was also around the time I began to appreciate Tobey Maguire and all of the cinematic presence he had in my childhood. I suppose I’d taken for granted that really famous actors stay really famous actors forever. But I was young when Tobey was petering out! I didn’t know who Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson were. I just thought fame was everlasting and if it wasn’t, I could’ve never imagined it’d be by choice.
Following disappointment with the Andrew Garfield-led reboot of the beloved Spider-Man character and industry speculation that the character would be turned over again (this time with joint custody by Sony and Marvel), I began to buy into the memes that I had only ever sort of half-believed when I’d share them with my friends or post them as my Facebook cover photos. A frozen gif of Tobey’s Peter waxing to Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane, “I will always be Spider-Man.” The increased awareness that Raimi wanted a fourth Spider-Man film with Tobey facing John Malkovich as The Vulture. It all began to compound in a perfect web of nostalgia and I found myself irrevocably ensnared in it.
Long before the “Here’s how Bernie can still win” memes, I found myself invested in the potential for Tobey Maguire to win back the Peter Parker role for the character’s MCU arrival. Even when the shortlist was narrowed to Liam James, Asa Butterfield, and Tom Holland, I thought, Well, surely Tobey could cameo as a teacher in the high school, right? Maybe as the new Uncle Ben? I was desperate for any crumb of Tobey Maguire and a connection to Marvel; this was despite the fact that neither side had expressed a modicum of interest. (Imagine the surprise when Maguire did turn up in the MCU, but as Peter Parker.) Hell, I was desperate to see him be in something again. It was like that second half of the Patriots dynasty. Yes, I was alive and there for Tom Brady’s first three Super Bowls in New England, but I don’t remember them. Not really. Yes, I grew up with Tobey as Spider-Man, but I don’t remember that entering my life. He was always there. I wanted to appreciate what should never be taken for granted. I wanted to witness it with a conscious, developed brain.
I thought that orchestral version of the classic Spider-Man cartoon theme song in the logo for 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the closest we got to any nostalgia with the character. Holland’s portrayal was solid and beloved; why would Kevin Feige sully the rendition with a return to what had been forgiven and laid to rest a decade ago?
Then, in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, J.K. Simmons appeared in a post-credits scene to reprise his role as J. Jonah Jameson from those treasured Raimi films. Considering the multiverse had already been embraced and perfected by the 2018 film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I thought the Simmons casting was merely because Marvel Studios knew they could do no better. Surely, this was the most we would get.
But then — all Reddit rumors and podcast speculation and leaked set photos and Jimmy Fallon interviews aside — Andrew Garfield raced through a portal into Ned’s home and removed his mask. He wasn’t Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. He was the one I’d seen with my friends while playing hide-and-seek at our local strip mall. Yes, Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, and Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman had all turned up in the film so far. But Garfield? This was incontrovertible proof that I (and all the other Raimi devotees) was about to witness what would forever endure as an all-time theater-going moment for me.
Not in costume. Not masked. Just in a casual jacket and a bit of stubble befitting of a Peter Parker nearing fifty (it’d been fifteen years since we saw him blink back tears in a slow dance with Mary Jane), Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker stepped over a portal of his own and into 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The first time he played the character since 2007’s Spider-Man 3. The first time his visage appeared on a movie screen since 2014. Yes, the Raimi Parker was back, but so was Tobey Maguire.
What did it mean when he showed up in this film? More than I imagined, considering it was a foregone conclusion that he would. Whether it was an inordinate sum of money or a persuasive conversation with Sam Raimi (now the director of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) or a genuine affection and removal of time for a period, a story, a character, he was back.
When we last saw Tobey as Peter, he had lost a lot. His uncle, his best friend, a whole slew of mentor figures. It seemed like he was primed to lose the love of his life on top of it all, too. And even though he came from a different corner of the multiverse when he returned fifteen years later, there’s no side of the many worlds that isn’t hard. I last saw him when I was nine and he was “college age.” Now, I’m twenty-three. And, yeah, man, life is hard. There’s hardships I’m privileged enough to never have to endure, but I do know heartbreak and loss and friendships that ended with malice and friendships that ended with distance and time. We’ve all been through a lot. Some more than others.
But to see the truth and vulnerability of Peter Parker. The knowledge that he would never waver from what it means to be a hero (his friend, Harry, taught him that). We knew he never would and certainly not in a slightly Disneyfied version of Raimi’s take on the character. Yet, to see it for real. To see a man who has continued being a hero, even as he’s aged and become more inflexible. To see a man who has clearly prioritized the love he finds in his life with an emphasis on the hard work that it takes to make love last. To see a man who hasn’t forgotten the painful lessons we watched him endure. It’s incredibly moving. It never fully sits right with me to see the petulant, aggressive fight he has with Harry towards the middle of Spider-Man 3, especially knowing that it ends with Harry’s redemption and subsequent sacrifice. But to see him stopping Tom Holland’s Peter Parker (both with words and with physicality) from making those same irreversible mistakes? It’s just another reminder of how much the stories we’ve always loved can truly matter. Not just for us, but for the characters on screen, too.
This is all without even mentioning how gloriously satisfying it was to see Tobey (and Andrew Garfield, too) in the roles again from a nerdy perspective. I mean, between one of the most thrilling moments in cinematic history (the final battle between all Avengers and Thanos in Avengers: Endgame) and the return of two iconic Spider-Men, portals are going to make me feel some type of way forever. Whenever Doctor Strange (or whoever possesses the sling ring) conjures a portal, I’m just going to be elated. And yes, this comes with all the caveats of how No Way Home dominated the box office at a time when the entire world was skeptical of going to public theaters for anything that’s not a massively successful franchise (R.I.P. The Last Duel at the box office). I want franchise filmmaking and independent storytelling to coexist in our cultural consciousness. But I also don’t think No Way Home was a cheap ploy at nostalgia. To the execs and the cynics? Maybe. But it’s a movie that is crafted with thought and care; it’s loving.
Seeing Tobey Maguire come back as Spider-Man felt like my version of Harrison Ford’s clamor-worthy, “Chewie, we’re home” in Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Keanu Reeves reawakening from the Matrix in Resurrections. Seeing Maguire back is at the same level, for my childhood, as it would be to see those two aforementioned actors (Wood and Radcliffe) return to the roles that made them inordinately famous. (Wood briefly did in The Hobbit trilogy.) Yes, it’s fun to see aged actors reprise their most iconic characters. But with Maguire, it was my generation’s turn to experience it.
Forget about the meta elements, though. Tobey Maguire was back as an older Spider-Man who served as a mentor to the new one. What came before mattered here — in this moment! in this movie! — and he slipped back into character so perfectly, so effortlessly. It was special. All the best parts of pop culture are.
What’s next for Tobey Maguire now that he’s shed the shadow of what it meant to be the 2000s’ most famous franchise film star? Now that he’s let go of the baggage that comes from that and celebrated what will eventually be the byline of his obituary? Now that he’s back in the same cultural realm that initially put him off from the need to appear in films in the first place? Maybe another turn as Spider-Man, as fans and bloggers have speculated. Maybe he’ll retreat back into producing and minimal voice acting. Maybe he’ll parlay his upcoming role in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon into a deeper career Renaissance.
Either way, he’s turned the page from the middle of his career that saw him only occupying the role of an elder Boss Baby. Sometimes, when you turn the page, you come back to what you once loved. Rereading the story we all know, yes. But with the perspective to understand it in a different way. That growth, beyond the nostalgia, is present and real and synonymous with that love. He will always be Spider-Man.
