The two leakiest things in 2021 were my broken colander and the Spider-Man: No Way Home set. Yes, despite desperate and committed attempts to keep details of Tom Holland’s third Marvel Cinematic Universe outing a secret, you couldn’t go a week without some revelation hitting the front page of Twitter.
This put the action movie’s stars in a bit of a tricky spot. We all saw those leaked pics of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland in their spider-pyjamas, but the three Spider-Men in question had to deny their existence. To paraphrase George Orwell, Sony and Marvel were asking fans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Now though, that the film is out in the open, Garfield has spilt the beans on all the Spider-Man leaks admitting he panicked at first. “I worked so hard to keep it secret that I was in Atlanta shooting,” Garfield told The Wrap. “All these leaks were happening, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, guys, what the hell is going on? I’m working so hard here to stay secret, and then here’s an image of me with Tobey!'”
Sony executives held their nerve, though, telling Garfield their strategy was to ignore the leaks. [Sony is] like, ‘No, no, we’re gonna keep it quiet.’ ‘OK, I’ll keep denying it.’ I was happy to do it, but it was a lot of work on everyone’s part,” Garfield finished. “It obviously gave people a big thrill in the theatre, and what more do you want from a theatre experience than a thrill?”
Eventually, Garfield started to feel comfortable telling the little white lie that he wasn’t in No Way Home. He even made a little game out of it, believing that preserving the film’s secrets as best he could, was ultimately in service of No Way Home and the fans.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is part of Marvel’s Phase 4 and is in cinemas now. If you love the Wallcrawler, check out our guide ranking the Spider-Man villains.