10 Fun Facts About Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man Films

Following his comeback in No Way Home, Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man has experienced a surge in popularity. In fact, supporters are requesting a third Garfield-Spidey movie. The Amazing Spider-Man movies are polarizing among fans, but given the tension behind the scenes, it’s amazing they’re still this excellent. Here, we give you the low-down on the 10 things about these two “middle-brother” movies that you didn’t know.

No.1  TASM3 would have brought George Stacy back to life.

Denis Leary said he had terrific relationships with Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield, and Emma Stone and that he enjoyed working on The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Imagine his sadness when the planned third movie was abandoned due to the underwhelming performance of TASM2. Having said that, Leary provided us a sneak preview of what to look forward to in TASM3: more Denis Leary! The comedian-actor claimed that Spider-Man would use a “formula” to “regenerate the individuals in his life that have died” in an IGN interview from the 2015 Comic-Con.

No.2  ASM2 was going to include Mary Jane.

Tiger, you didn’t win the lottery this time, let’s face it. Mary Jane Watson was slated to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 behind the scenes. Shailene Woodley, who is well-known for the Divergent films and A Fault in Our Stars, was actually cast and filmed parts. But in the editing room, Marc Webb and his team chose to cut her scenes. In a 2014 Los Angeles Times interview, Webb stated, “Shailene is a brilliant actress, and she did a great couple days of work, but it was very difficult to introduce someone as a competing love interest when so much is on the table with Peter and Gwen.” Given how packed the film is, this may actually be a blessing in disguise.

No.3  Skateboarding sequences are the work of Andrew Garfield.

Andrew Garfield admits that he “fought” to have particular scenes included in the first TASM movie in an interview with The Daily Mirror from 2012. One of these is the skateboarding scene involving Peter Parker. Garfield replies, “At least I fought. I won a lot of the battles and lost a handful. Everything I had was given. You are only capable of so much. Garfield revealed in November that he would frequently get into intense fights with Sony Co-Chairwoman Amy Pascal about the film’s artistic choices, so it would be reasonable to infer that’s what he’s referring to here.

No.4  For Spiderman movements, Andrew Garfield studied well-known athletes and spiders.

The Spider-Man character has no secret admirer in Andrew Garfield. He was particularly concerned with getting the character’s vibe, including movements. Garfield observed the motions of well-known athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Muhammad Ali. He did, however, also research spider behavior because, well, he’s Spider-Man. In a 2012 NPR interview, Garfield asks, “Why not truly bring in the physicality of a spider? If you’re going to do that and treat it real — if my DNA is being mingled with that of an actual spider. A 17-year-old guy is changed by the calmness, the patience, and the lightness. Playing with that is also enjoyable.

No.5  Why Curt Connors’ supporters are disappointed

Our first live-action portrayal of Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. The Lizard, was from The Amazing Spider-Man. However, let’s be brutally honest: He’s a forgettable bad guy. In fact, Rhys Ifans, who played him, was dissatisfied in the outcome. He stated to TotalFilm as follows:

As I was reading that, I recalled Googling up The Lizard and finding a cartoon in which Dr. Curt Connors returns home and plays around with his Lizard-ness. He eats his kids and brings his work home with him. Not because Dr. Curt Connors was eating his kids, but because it was the film’s exploration of what it could be about, I remember thinking at the time, “That’s the film I want to be in.” Naturally, it couldn’t be that. When it comes to those kinds of franchises, nothing you’re told or promised at the beginning will ever match what you see on screen.

No.6  Kevin Feige provided advice to the ASM2 filmmakers

You can’t deny Kevin Feige’s passion for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether you love it or detest it (and many people do). If his ongoing work isn’t proof enough for you, perhaps these notes he made while working on Sony’s disastrous Amazing Spider-Man 2 will. The MCU creator, as revealed in the stolen Sony emails, was very critical of the Andrew Garfield-starring spider-sequel (join the club, Kev!) and offered the producers various suggestions on how they could make the movie better.

Because it casts doubt on the notion that Peter is a typical young man from Queens, Feige objected to the focus placed on Peter’s father’s “super-scientist” background. Along with the several plots, he also critiqued Paul Giamatti’s over-the-top performance as Rhino. Sadly, Sony ignored Feige’s recommendations, resulting in the inferior of Andrew Garfield’s TASM films.

No.7  Sally Field detested producing movies.

Over the years, Sally Field has held a variety of noteworthy positions. She doesn’t particularly enjoy her behind-the-scenes memories of Aunt May from The Amazing Spider-Man movies, either. Field revealed during a Howard Stern interview that she only took on the role of May as a favor for the films’ producer, Laura Ziskin, with whom she was good friends. Wow, tell us how you truly feel, Sally! Behind the scenes, Sally Field said, “It’s incredibly hard to find a three dimensional character in it, and you push it as much as you can, but you can’t put ten pounds of s**t in a five pound bag.”

No.8  Sony thought of having Peter be a college student.

When Andrew Garfield was chosen to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man, he was 26. Many, however, were worried about the British actor’s age since they believed he was too old to impersonate a high school student. Rumor has it that Sony was one of them and considering sending Peter to college, at least for a while. Although Amazing Spider-Man was frequently advertised as “Spider-Man in high school,” TASM did include Peter attending high school (and Andrew Garfield’s youthful appearance made him a plausible teen anyhow).

No.9  “Ultimate Spider-Man” served as an inspiration for the Spider-Man artists.

Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Spider-Man run served as a major source of inspiration for Amazing Spider-Man. Senior VFX supervisor Jerome Chen stated that the VFX team drew aesthetic influence from this well-known comic run in a 2012 interview with Assignment X. We went with the more modern artists and tried to seek for positions that would translate to the next stance without it looking too much like keyframe animation, says Chen, adding that Mark Bagley’s art greatly inspired the final swinging sequence of the movie.

No.10  Stan Lee and Marc Webb talked about the Web-Shooters.

Before he famously included the web-shooters in the finished film, director of the Amazing Spider-Man Marc Webb and Stan Lee discussed the web-shooters. In a 2011 interview with The Los Angeles Times, the Director notes, “I was intrigued about the manifestation of them [because] of course in the past films [they drifted away from them] and we wanted to restore ourselves.” In addition to helping to distinguish ASM from Raimi’s trilogy, Webb believed the shooters would “dramatize Peter’s brilliance” and look hip.

 

Besides, if you are a fan of Andrew Garfield, you gotta check this out!