Happy birthday, Tobey Maguire — you’re now older than Norman Osborn! The Spidey actor turned 48 on Tuesday, effectively sending fans of the comic book movie into yet another existential crisis after they realized he is now older than Willem Dafoe was when he played Osborn/Green Goblin in 2002’s Spider-Man.
Movies have the strange effect of searing images into our minds, making it difficult to imagine actors any younger or any older than they were when they made our favorite films. It becomes even more jarring when those movies are a significant part of our childhood and the passage of time for the actors reminds us of our own unavoidable aging. Dark, I know, but we’re still really glad Tobey Maguire is doing well and hope we get to celebrate many more of his birthdays in the future — even if each one will inevitably feel like a punch in the gut.
It might put things into perspective to know Maguire was not, in fact, a teenager when he shot the high-school-based superhero movie, but 27 years old. James Franco, who played Dafoe’s son was 24. So, worry not, Maguire’s Peter Parker isn’t actually pushing 50, he’s 38 right now — ten whole years younger than the actor. As for Dafoe, he’s probably drinking some kind of elixir that we need to get our hands on, because he honestly doesn’t look that different 21 years on.
Age is but a number, and that much could not have been made clearer than when Maguire donned his iconic suit to bring the webslinger to life one last time for 2021’s mind-blogging Spider-Man: No Way Home.