Andrew Garfield talks about his return as Spider-Man in No Way Home

Out of the three different iterations of Spider-Man we've seen on the big screen, only one of them wasn't able to get a trilogy of his own. While Andrew Garfield was perfectly cast as Peter Parker, he had the unfortunate luck of being the star of movies with weak scripts. His time as the web-slinger was cut shorter than expected when Tom Holland took his place as the friendly neighborhood hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Needless to say, it was a complicated time for Andrew, who was once living his dream of portraying such an important character.

Fortunately, Spider-Man: No Way Home gave the British star a fantastic redemption arc. Fans were excited to see him wear the red and blue costume once again and even campaigned for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 to one day be released. Now, we all hope he returns once again either in the untitled Spider-Man 4 or Avengers: Secret Wars (or perhaps even both). It's been an amazing comeback story, and now we finally get to hear how Peter Parker himself has felt about it.

Andrew Garfield and Ryan Reynolds talk about the MCU on Actors on Actors

Marvel stars Andrew Garfield and Ryan Reynolds were the latest guests of Variety's series Actors on Actors (which you can watch above). It's a fantastic episode that touches on various topics such as mentorship, loss, and purpose, all while Ryan makes amazing jokes no stop. I highly recommend watching it in case you haven't, as the duo's chemistry will only make you wish for that Spider-Man and Deadpool crossover even more. Speaking of which, both actors talked about their latest roles in the MCU.

Andrew reveals his original time as Spidey felt "undone", leading him to go through a self-healing process where he dealt with his relationship with validation, inclusion, and disclusion. Now that the dust has settled, he's very grateful for going through that experience which he describes as "soul work". It must have been a pretty complex process, especially taking into account how much Spider-Man means to Andrew Garfield:

"One of the first photos of me as a three-year-old is in a Spider-Man costume that my mother made out of felt (...) This person, this character, it means so f**** much to me"

He follows up by stating being he was very grateful for being able to work on Spider-Man: No Way Home as it felt like a playpen. The movie was led by Tom Holland, which gave Andrew and Tobey a chance to be much more loose. On that note, he also mentions director Jon Watts also encouraged actors to improvise in many scenes, which led to the creation of the "Spider-Man support group" that worked so well on screen.

Ryan also heavily talked about Wade Wilson and slightly addressed the future of the character. The Canadian actor commented on how it takes very long to figure out how to write and create the Deadpool movies because the character only works when you strip him away from everything. That's why audiences saw him temporarily lose Vanessa in his second film, as well as his entire universe in the third. With that in mind, Ryan doesn't want to spend too much time trying to figure out the premise of a hypothetical Deadpool 4 and miss being at his kids' events in the process. Instead, he's supportive of watching the Merc With A Mouth make guest appearances in other projects, such as a stand-alone Gambit movie.

As was to be expected, no big reveals about the future of Spider-Man or Deadpool came throughout the whole episode. However, chances are we'll see them interact on the big screen in either Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars. After all, they are two of the most pivotal and beloved Marvel characters right now, so their pairing seems like a no-brainer. Furthermore, comic book series such as Spider-Man/Deadpool proves the two can be an amazing team with no shortage of whacky adventures, so why not translate some of that magic to the big screen?

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on May 1, 2026.