Spider-Man's Tom Holland shoots down those Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire team-up rumors

Though we know almost nothing about the actual plot at this point, the third Spider-Man film starring Tom Holland directed by Jon Watts already sounds like a very wild ride. Holland and all of his co-stars — including Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batolon as Ned — are back for the third outing, but this time they'll be joined by some visitors from other universes, namely Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Jamie Foxx) and Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 (Alfred Molina). Plus, Doctor Strange is showing up, cementing Peter Parker's need to always hang out with older men with goatees. 

Both pieces of villain casting set the stage for some kind of multiversal showdown for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of Peter Parker, and they've also invited tons of speculation about who else from these other universes might show up. After all, if you've got villains from the last two Spider-Man franchises...why can't you bring back the heroes too? 

In a new interview with Esquire to promote his upcoming crime drama Cherry, Holland was asked directly if we can expect any appearances from fellow Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in his upcoming third solo outing as the webslinger, and his answer was pretty straightforward.

“No, no, they will not be appearing in this film,” Holland said. “Unless they have hidden the most massive piece of information from me, which I think is too big of a secret for them to keep from me. But as of yet, no. It’ll be a continuation of the Spider-Man movies that we’ve been making.”

It is, of course, noteworthy that Holland at least somewhat jokingly leaves open the possibility that Garfield and Maguire's involvement is being hidden from him, particularly if their hypothetical roles happened to be little more than cameos. Holland has a history of giving away just a little bit too much information about the MCU in interviews, so much so that it's become a running joke as to who can spoil the films faster, him or Mark Ruffalo.

In the same Esquire interview, he recounted  the now-famous story of the time the filmmakers told him he was dressing up for a wedding on the set of Avengers: Endgame, only to later learn he was shooting Tony Stark's funeral, so there's certainly precedent for the creative team hiding things from the young star.

Still, he's right. This would be a massive thing to hide from the current reigning Spider-Man, and there's bound to be better publicist-driven answers to the question than a flat-out "No" if indeed Holland is keep something from us. Then again, there was that time Paramount tried to convince us for about a year that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing "John Harrison" in Star Trek Into Darkness... so anything's possible. 

The still-untitled third Spider-Man film hits theaters December 17, 2021.