It’s a known fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe holds a tight grip on any spoilers regarding its movies, and the box-office hit Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn’t any different. For months Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, and Tobey Maguire had to keep the secret that fans would see three Peter Parkers traverse the multi-verse and unite on screen. However, it turns out that Andrew Garfield took his secretive duties for the action movie very seriously.
In a conversation on The Ellen DeGeneres Show while promoting his breakaway performance in Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical Tick, Tick…Boom! the star opened up about his involvement in what has become the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time. Speaking on how he managed to hide his superhero commitments, Garfield shared how he only told three people that he’d be making an appearance in No Way Home (the Marvel police would be proud).
“I lied to people for a good two years, and I lied to the internet for two years, and it felt great,” Garfield said. “My dad, my brother, and my mother… just kind of us. It was fun to keep it a secret. It felt like I was organizing a surprise birthday party for a bunch of people who I knew would appreciate it.”
Garfield was notorious for denying any mention of his involvement in No Way Home, right up to its release. The star continually dodged all of the press’ questions about the three Spider-Men matter, and didn’t even disclose his undercover web-slinging gig to ex-girlfriend and The Amazing Spider-Man co-star Emma Stone. However, his extreme secrecy came from a well-meaning place at the end of the day.
The star previously told The Wrap that keeping his choice to stay hush hush was for the fans’ sake. “I placed myself in that position of, Well, what would I want to know?” He explained. “Would I want to be guessing, guessing, guessing? I would want the actor to do an incredibly good job at convincing me he wasn’t in it. And then I would want to lose my mind in the theatre when my instinct was proven right. That’s what I would want.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now in theatres. Want to know what is heading to the MCU next? Here is our guide to Marvel Phase 4.