It’s time to head back into the history of the Spider-Verse and Sam Raimi's original trilogy of movies. From 2002 to 2007, Tobey Maguire suited up and swung across the New York City skyline to save the day. Up there with the likes of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Christian Bale as Batman and Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Maguire's portrayal is held as one of the great, unexpected comic-book castings.
Some might know that it was nearly a very different story following 2002's Spider-Man. Despite the box-office success of Raimi's first movie, Maguire was set to walk away and be replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal. While Gyllenhaal has stuck a goldfish bowl on his head to play Mysterio for Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Far From Home, picture the Brokeback Mountain star playing the wall-crawling hero.
Although Far From Home is Gyllenhaal's first superhero movie, he has circled the world of heroes and villains for a while. Variety revealed in 2003 how close he came to replacing Maguire all those years ago…
After Spider-Man webbed itself an eye-watering $821.7 million on a $139 million budget, it was a no-brainer that Sony wanted to quickly move ahead with a sequel.
Maguire, it was reported, wasn’t happy with his proposed paycheque for Spider-Man 2 and cited the $30 million producer Laura Ziskin reportedly made off the original. Although both sides locked horns, Columbia Pictures negotiated a deal with the young star and it looked like Spider-Man 2 was back on track. Things took a turn for the worse when Maguire's ongoing back problems cast doubt on his future with the franchise.
Spider-Man 2 had already pushed shooting from January to April so Maguire could finish Seabiscuit for Universal and fearing a shift from the superhero sequel's 2004 release slot, Sony apparently announced that it would find a new star to squeeze into the suit.
What to Read Next
Sony called out Maguire (Variety reported at the time that the studio believed he was swinging the lead to improve his deal, though there's no evidence that was the case) and Gyllenhaal was rushed into negotiations.
Considering Gyllenhaal was dating Maguire's co-star Kirsten Dunst at the time, there was probably a pretty frosty atmosphere. It’s easy to see why Gyllenhaal was eyed as the 'new' Peter Parker: he wasn't at his current level of fame, but as a rising young star with a similar physique to Maguire and a cult hit in Donnie Darko, it wouldn't have been too much of a shock to switch actors – think Katie Holmes and Jake's sister Maggie in the Dark Knight movies.
Some deny that a deal was ever made, but everyone has their own stories to tell, with others claiming Gyllenhaal had already started training for the role. Speaking to the LA Times, Maguire later admitted: "I never understood that we were at that point".
Fearing that he was about to lose the role of a lifetime, Maguire reportedly sought the advice of his (future) father-in-law, Ronald Meyer. Everything was smoothed over and the official statement claimed that Sony was simply "worried" about Maguire’s back. Pop-culture buffs might remember the whole thing became a bit of a talking point for a while and was even parodied in Entourage – one standout moment saw Gyllenhaal replace Vincent Chase as Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, on Michael Bay's fictional Aquaman 2.
It's hard to know what would have happened if Gyllenhaal had taken over from Maguire. Would there have been Spider-Man 3, would Raimi have realised his dreams for Spider-Man 4 (complete with Anne Hathaway and John Malkovich), or would Sony have rebooted after just two movies? Ultimately, fans will never know.
Following the poor reception of Spider-Man 3, Maguire was replaced with Andrew Garfield and the franchise took a new turn.
Even if Gyllenhaal was considered for the role again, Garfield only lasted two movies before there was another reboot and Tom Holland played an even younger version of the friendly neighbourhood hero for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As Gyllenhaal comes full circle and finally joins the Spider-Verse as Mysterio, there is a sense of justice that he was probably always destined to be part of Spidey's world in some way or another.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen.
Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.
These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN.
Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.
