All the actors that have played Spider-Man have ended up holding a special place in the heart of Marvel fans. Be it Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland, each star has left his own imprint on the character of Peter Parker, thereby making it all the more special. But then why was Andrew Garfield given such a short tenure to play Spider-Man?
Contrary to popular belief, Andrew Garfield getting replaced by Tom Holland for playing the role of one of the most popular superheroes of the MCU had almost nothing to do with the actor’s skills or lack thereof. In fact, it was much more about the studio being unhappy with him for certain other reasons, like his apparent lack of social skills.
Why did Sony replace Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man?
Sure, the unimpressive performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the box office had a role to play in bringing the prospect of the franchise’s expansion to a halt as well as nudging toward the re-casting of the superhero. But that certainly wasn’t the only reason; in fact, it wasn’t even the major reason why Andrew Garfield had to give up playing Peter Parker.
Following the notorious Sony hack that took place in 2014, a series of leaked e-mails divulged the real reason behind why the studio had “let go” of Garfield as the Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman.
Apparently, the Silence star had been unable to attend a rather important event wherein the chief of Sony, Kaz Hirai was planning on announcing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 for a release in 2017. But unfortuantely enough, Garfield had fallen sick and had no other choice but to miss the event.
According to sources and reports, the e-mail read, “here we are about one hour away from our Gala event and Andrew decides he doesn’t want to attend. He has a rather scruffy beard and he just wants to be left alone.”
Whether or not this was the reality behind the situation never truly got disclosed. And even Garfield himself gave a rather inconspicuous response when he was asked about being fired. “No, I don’t think so,” he told The Guardian back in 2016. “What I’ll proudly say is that I didn’t compromise who I was, I was only ever myself. And that might have been difficult for some people.” Talk about a cryptic response.
Where did The Amazing Spider-Man 2 go wrong?
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 earned a lot of mixed responses from the audience as well as the critics, with people claiming that the film just had way too much going on all at once. From overcrowding the film’s plot with more villains than necessary to a sub-par storyline with numerous plotholes, the movie had ended up becoming a “box-office disappointemnt.”
Following the underwhelming reviews paired with the actor’s mishap wherein he skipped a vital event with regard to the film, it was ultimately decided that there won’t be any more reboots of the franchise with the English actor.
However, Garfield had never been hesitant while talking about the film’s failure and always seemed to have taken the criticizm in stride. Maybe, he had never been the problem after all.
Source: Fansided
