Here's What Convinced Andrew Garfield To Join The Spider-Man: No Way Home Cast

In the years following 2007's "Spider-Man 3," Sony was at a crossroads when it came to what it should do with the web-slinger going forward. Director Sam Raimi planned on a fourth entry in his existing series, but fans and critics alike didn't hide their disappointment in the third. Despite its financial success, the studio elected to take the reboot path and kick off a whole new Spider-Man-centric continuity. As a result, longtime Peter Parker actor Tobey Maguire handed the baton to Andrew Garfield for what became known as the "Amazing Spider-Man" franchise.

The first "Amazing Spider-Man" hit the big screen in 2012, pitting Garfield's web-head against Dr. Curtis Connors, aka the Lizard (Rhys Ifans). It also introduced new takes on Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Aunt May (Sally Field), and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), among other comic-inspired supporting characters. This darker, grittier Spidey flick did reasonably well, at least well enough to nab itself a 2014 sequel simply titled "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." Sadly, moviegoers were not impressed with what they saw, partially causing it to be the unintended punctuation mark on the budding franchise.

Regardless of how you may feel about the "Amazing Spider-Man" duology, you can't take away Andrew Garfield's love and dedication to the lead role. Thankfully, Sony and Marvel Studios approached him to return to it one more time for 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Here's what led him to sign the dotted line and join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" does an excellent job of expanding on the groundwork laid by previous MCU projects "WandaVision" and "Loki" by delving deeper into the multiverse concept. As a result of a botched spell by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), villains from various timelines converged on the MCU's Earth, leaving Tom Holland's Spider-Man to somehow return them to their homes. Luckily, other versions of Spider-Man tumbled through the rift in spacetime, too, uniting Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield's versions of Peter Parker — something the latter actor was very keen on.

"I was just waiting to see if Tobey was going to do it, and if Tobey was going to do it, then I was like, well, I have no choice, you know?" recalled Andrew Garfield in an interview for the Spider-Man YouTube channel (via Deadline), explaining further why he was so interested in joining the "No Way Home" cast. "The intention feels very pure here. It actually feels like a great creative idea and a great creative story," he said, adding that he appreciated that his and Maguire's Spider-Man incarnations played an active role in the story and aided in the development of Tom Holland's Spider-Man, rather than just cameoing for the sake of doing so. Garfield refers to their team-up as a "brotherhood" and voices his approval in how the final film turned out.

Witnessing three generations of Spider-Man work together at the cinema was truly something special, and Andrew Garfield's presence was essential to that feeling. Without him, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" wouldn't be the same.