How Andrew Garfield Found Out He's Not Spider-Man Anymore

While Andrew Garfield earned a lot of new fans thanks to his turn as the lead of the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, sadly he is one of the biggest losers in the brand new deal between Marvel Studios and Sony. With the wall-crawler heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the two companies have agreed to start fresh with a new face in the lead role, and that means Garfield is out. But how exactly did he hear the news? That story is now being reported.

The Daily Beast has the scoop on exactly how the Marvel/Sony deal went down from Andrew Garfield's perspective, and you may be surprised to hear that he didn't just get a phone call telling him he was out. According to a source, there was apparently some talk at first about a way that could see The Social Network star "continue his involvement" with the new Marvel Cinematic Universe-direction that Spider-Man is taking. Ultimately, however, it was decided that it "didn't make sense" for Garfield to stay on and it was agreed that the parties would be splitting ways.

In the time since the big announcement from Marvel Studios and Sony, we've heard a good amount of information regarding the new direction that the Spider-Man character will go in, and it does make sense that Andrew Garfield will be cut loose. After all, it is being planned that the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the webslinger will be very young, and theAmazing Spider-Man star will be turning 32 this year. If the idea is to have the wall-crawling superhero's age be a sharp contrast to the likes of Captain America and Thor, it would be helpful to get an actor who is not only one year younger than Chris Evans and almost exactly the same age as Chris Hemsworth.

Leaving Andrew Garfield behind is the right move for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is a shame that it has to happen. While The Amazing Spider-Man movies were built on a poor foundation narrative-wise, Garfield was one of the best elements in both films and really put his own twist on both the Peter Parker and Spider-Man characters. Basically, he deserved a lot better than the quality that the two blockbusters ended up having.

As for who will be replacing Andrew Garfield as the cinematic web head, it may be a while before we find out. As we previously reported, Marvel and Sony are looking to find a director for the 2017 solo Spider-Man feature before they start looking for a lead actor, and we can assume that hunt is still very much in-process. That said, stay tuned in the coming weeks and months, as it's guaranteed we will be learning a lot more about this new movie series in that time.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.