Tobey Maguire on bringing 3 generations of Spider-Men together: 'It had a sense of destiny to it'

Tobey Maguire, the progenitor of our current fascination with Peter Parker on the big screen, has officially broken his silence on the return of his Raimi-era character in Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: No Way Home (now playing in theaters across the globe).

Sitting down for a half-hour discussion with his fellow web-slingers, Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield, Maguire spoke at length about what it was like to put his iconic suit back on, stating: "It wasn’t without its challenges, but it all just unfolded the way it needed to. It had a sense of this destiny to it." Before he even stepped on set, though, Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige had to sell him on the ambitious idea. The two powerhouse Hollywood executives initially convened a secret meeting in which they danced around the issue at hand.

"They sort of teased it," the actor recalled. "Amy was like, ‘We’d love to talk to you and you know what this is about.’ I was like, ‘Ok…sure. Let’s have a chat’ … I gotta say I was intrigued immediately. In that conversation, the intention — the love and celebration of these movies and what it meant to Amy and Kevin — was apparent. To me, when artists or people who are steering the creative process have an authentic, genuine intent of celebration of love... it was just so apparent in both of them, that I just wanted to join that. I’m a big fan of Tom and those movies and [of] Andrew, so it was definitely intriguing. But yes, I was also going, ‘What are we gonna do?’ And that was a bit mysterious."

The Spider-Men (plural) sequences were filmed about three months into production and the impactful nature of reprising a role he first played nearly two decades before was not lost on Maguire. "I was just grateful every day. It was such a rich experience and as the guys have touched on, the kind of sharing of something and the brotherhood of it...it was just so rich, emotional," he explained. "I don’t know — I’m [wasn't] sitting there conceptually thinking about that all the time, but I would have moments where that kind of stuff would hit me."

You can watch the full interview below:

He continued: "I’d have these reflection moments, which were quite powerful and elegantly woven. Because you’re thinking about taking 20 years of history and revisiting that and how do you balance all of these things? Each of our series of films, we’re playing the same character, but they’re also unique and the way those films and characters evolved in those films are unique. And then bring all of that together, including all of our super-villains, it was pretty wild to witness the immensity of all of this history coming together [in] this standalone, worthwhile story. I too just want to say with the coda of the movie, I was really touched emotionally, but I also thought it had such a sweet elegance to it. That was so amazing."

When it came to getting back into costume again, he described the experience as uncomfortable, yet ultimately rewarding:

"It’s a goof and then it also has a power in a sense. Because it brings me back into that character. There’s so much affinity for this character — it means so much to so many people that once the goofiness of being in Lycra or spandex, once that goes away, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, this is cool.’ It’s a responsibility, but a blessing. Being with these guys, it really was just a much richer experience than I anticipated than I could really even express in words. To get to be there with these guys in their suits and whether it was dancing around or playing around in scenes and improv-ing or feeling that sense of service to each other and the character being in service to humanity, it really gives a certain perspective. And then the kind of trust and openness that I have with these guys and [director Jon Watts] and Amy and everyone. It just brought this really open…I just felt super safe and we were all on the same team and we were all in support of each other. It just brought out this really loving, fun, creative experience that I was just sitting in gratitude every day. Which is not always the case when you’re working on something."

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters everywhere.