Andrew Garfield Has One Condition To Return As Marvel's Spider-Man

As an actor and a movie star, Andrew Garfield is the genuine article. He clearly loves what he does, and fully commits to every role with an I-can't-believe-I-get-to-do-this-for-a-living glee. Though he made his feature debut 19 years ago, his career still feels incredibly young. Perhaps this is because it feels like we've barely scratched the surface of his talent. We've seen him be buoyant ("Tick, Tick... Boom!"), gloomy ("Never Let Me Go"), and just plain spacey ("Under the Silver Lake"), but there's so much more for him and us to discover. He's a man of many modes, and you can't help but feel that, at 41, the best is yet to come for Garfield.

After a three year break from movies, Garfield will return to theaters this fall alongside the equally brilliant Florence Pugh in the romantic drama "We Live in Time." The film currently holds a generally favorable 66 out of 100 rating at Metacritic, though it sounds like your tolerance for mawkishness might be tested with this one. Personally, I'll put up with a lot just to spend a couple of hours watching Garfield and Pugh do their splendid thing.

This raises the question: would I endure another Garfield in another Spider-Man outing? What I want doesn't really matter. It's what Garfield would prefer to do that counts, and it sounds like he's open to another go-round as Peter Parker. He just has one request from the filmmakers.

In the latest issue of Empire, Garfield reveals that the experience of starring in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was "healing" for him after the commercial, critical, and fan disappointment of his two "The Amazing Spider Man" movies. Those films were indeed dreadful, but their awfulness had just about everything to do with their wretched screenplays. Garfield had the stuff to be a great Parker, but the writing simply let him down at every turn.

Now that he's had a taste of making a well-liked Spider-Man movie, Garfield is leaving the door open for a return to the role. As he told Empire:

"For sure, I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it's additive to the culture, if there's a great concept or something that hasn't been done before that's unique and
odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into. I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I'm joyful in return."

He experienced that joy first-hand at San Diego Comic Con in 2011, and was so winning in that moment that I can't begrudge him the opportunity to go a-web-slinging again. Obviously, I'd rather see him keep working with major filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Robert Mitchell, and Luca Guadagnino, but whatever keeps him buzzing is vital. The last thing I want is for this gift of a performer to lose his infectious ardor for his craft.