The early 2000s were a wild time, with three of the best movie series ever being released, all within three years or so. There was the Harry Potter movies, and the first three of these were released between 2001-2004. Then there was The Lord of the Rings trilogy, with each movie being released around Christmas in 2001, 2002, and 2003. And there was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy, with the first two being released in 2002 and 2004.
With the stars of all three having brown hair and blue eyes, it’s not that surprising that has been some fan confusion over the years. Harry Potter‘s Daniel Radcliffe and The Lord of the Rings’ Elijah Wood have both spoken about being mistaken for each other many times. Radcliffe even admitted to Drew Barrymore that he’s signed a photo of Elijah Wood that was handed to him on a red carpet.
In a Reddit AMA for the 2022 movie Babylon, Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire answered fan questions and comments. One of the first was; “Loved you in Lord of the Rings, man” and Maguire responded; “No joke, I once signed an autograph as Elijah Wood because the fan was so excited. I didn’t want to disappoint her by telling her I wasn’t Elijah.”
Asked by TMZ about being confused for Daniel Radcliffe, Elijah Wood said; “We do get that a lot. I have had that many, many times.” That said, he has never gone as far as Radcliffe (or Maguire) and pretended to be someone else; “No, I’ve never signed anything as him.”
Considering that Radcliffe was just 12-years-old when the first Harry Potter movie was released, Wood was 20-years-old when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, and Maguire was 27-years-old when the first Spider-Man movie premiered, this confusion has presumably only started happening in more recent years.
The other person who gets confused for Maguire a lot is Topher Grace, best-known for That 70s Show, but who was actually in Spider-Man 3 as Eddie Brock AKA Venom. They made Grace blonde in that movie, maybe to differentiate him from Maguire more.
We’re looking forward to the Venom 3 release date, and we’re sure you are too. See if you agree with our Spider-Man movies, ranked and our list of the best Spider-Man villains. Although they’ve been moved, we’re still craving the Kraven the Hunter release date and mad for the Madame Web release date.