Tobey Maguire was a month shy of his 27th birthday when he first starred as high school student Peter Parker in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man – which hit theaters in May 2002 – a regular occurrence in Hollywood when it comes to casting teenagers. However, the original big screen Spidey was younger than Andrew Garfield in Marc Webb’s reboot, with The Social Network actor seven weeks away from turning 29 when The Amazing Spider-Man arrived.
Tom Holland is the most youthful incumbent of the spandex by some distance, but even then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter was established as being fifteen when he debuted in Captain America: Civil War, which was released a month before he hit 20. Now that we’re getting all three together in Spider-Man 3, though, it’ll be interesting to see how close the multiversal Spideys hew to the ages of the respective returning actors.
Maguire is going to be 46 by the time the threequel swings into theaters, and after a serious back injury almost saw him replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal for Spider-Man 2, it isn’t as though he’ll be jumping around trying to recapture his glory days. The actor hasn’t been particularly active on the big screen over the last decade, either, and some new fan art from SPDRMNKYXXIII now imagines the Pleasantville star suiting up as a veteran Spider-Man who looks like he’s been through the wars, which you can check out below.
Fans would probably be more than okay if this is how Maguire appeared in Spider-Man 3, because it isn’t like we’ve seen a middle-aged Spidey in live-action before and in the context of the multiverse, he’s been protecting New York City for close to two decades. As such, you can understand why he’d be looking more than a little grizzled.