Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man: No Way Home Ending Was Sadder Than Holland’s

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home

Tobey Maguire’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Homemarked the return of the original Peter Parker for the first time in 14 years. Although the film kept the focus on Tom Holland’s version of the web-slinger, the multiverse opened a path for Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield each to return and reprise their roles. While many thought the two previous Peter Parkers would only make short cameo appearances, their roles were expanded into fully-fledged supporting characters.

Both Maguire and Garfield’s Peters were given ample time to develop their own mini-arcs within the film’s overarching plot. At the end of the film, the multiverse begins to collapse, with every person who knows a version of Peter Parker, including a mysterious yellow figure, coming into the main MCU universe. Holland’s Peter came up with a clever yet tragic solution by casting a spell causing all memories of Peter Parker to be lost. It’s a heartbreaking ending for Holland’s Peter, as he has to say goodbye to everyone who he’s ever known.

Peter’s memory forgetting spell was specifically targeted at the multiversal characters coming through. In order for the multiverse to be stabilized, they too would have to forget all memory of Peter Parker. It stands to reason that Doctor Strange’s final spell caused anyone who knew Peter Parker in any universe to lose memory of him — including the universes of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men. Although each Spider-Man is different in their own way, Strange’s spell must inevitably affect all of them. This is especially heartbreaking for Maguire’s Peter, who waved goodbye at Garfield’s Peter, blissfully unaware that he was returning to a universe in which no one would know who he was.

In 2002, Spider-Man introduced the world to a wide array of characters, all of them surrounding Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker. Across the original Spider-Man trilogy, characters come and go from Peter’s life. In No Way Home, Maguire’s Peter references a few of them, including his best friend Harry Osborn and his death from Spider-Man 3. While Harry might’ve met his fate in a previous movie, No Way Home ignored multiple other characters introduced in the trilogy, some of whom are still presumably living in his universe. However, due to the effects of Strange’s spell, they’ll have no memory of Peter Parker, whether they know he’s Spider-Man or not.

One of the sweeter moments between Spider-Men happens between Maguire and Garfield’s characters in the lab. While looking at Holland’s Peter with MJ, Garfield’s Peter talks about how he has “no time for Peter Parker stuff.” He reveals that he’s single and doesn’t think something like love is in the cards for people like him. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker lifts up him, revealing that, although it wasn’t easy, him and his Mary Jane – played by Kirsten Dunst – “made it work.” This reveal only makes the ending more heartbreaking, seeing as Mary Jane herself, Peter Parker’s love for the last 19 years, won’t remember who Peter is upon his arrival back in his own universe.

Tragically, those invested in this storyline may never see how it played out for Tobey Maguire’s Peter. With original director Sam Raimi returning to the genre for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Maguire’s return to the character, the internet has seen its fair share of fan speculation over a potential Spider-Man 4 for Maguire. Fan speculation, however, is only fan speculation, and Sony hasn’t even hinted at a return to the original Spider-Man universe. If anything, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 seems more likely, but still a long shot from any standpoint. While fans may never get a glimpse of Maguire’s Peter back in his own universe, Spider-Man: No Way Home left him in an even more heartbreaking situation than Tom Holland’s Peter.

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