Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man very nearly featured in Madame Web, according to the latest rumors.
The upcoming Spider-Man spinoff, which is part of Sony’s Spider-verse rather than Marvel’s MCU (although lines are blurry at this point), follows Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web, a character from the Spider-Man comics who can see the future.
And at one point, her paths crossed with Garfield’s version of the iconic Marvel superhero.
Sony, however, reportedly decided against the idea. Instead, it’s going with current Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. Or, at least, that’s what’s been alleged on Hollywood insider podcast The Hot Mic.
“For whatever reasons,” says host Jeff Sneider, “Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man was supposed to be Spider-Man in that world and afterwards it was decided, it’s gonna be Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.”
Sneider continued the reason for this is due to the timeline disparity. Madame Web was originally set in the ‘90s with appearances from Garfield, but when Sony made the choice to ultimately go with Holland, the ‘90s setting didn’t make sense anymore.
This prompted extensive reshoots. It’s hard out there in Hollywood: the Rocky spinoff starring Dolph Lundgren has also been delayed.
“They got rid of the 90s setting because that made sense when it was Andrew Garfield Spider-Man, but not for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man,” says Sneider.
Sony might have to start showing off an actual Spider-Man soon, though, because the marketing for Madame Web as it stands isn’t generating all that much buzz.
