December 2nd, 2006 -- Written by John Campea
With actors in long running franchises leaving the roles that catapulted their fame, it just seems trendy and appropriate that Tobey Maguire would consider broadening his horizons and quitting the Spiderman Franchise. One of the drawbacks to playing an iconic character is that the actor becomes recognized AS that character, and people tend not to buy into replacements.
According to Starpulse News Blog, found on Filmstalker, Maguire has announced, again, that the third Spider-Man movie may be his last. “This might be a good place to stop – I am not tied contractually to any more Spider-Man movies. I am not completely closed to the idea of another one if it made sense but I would say the odds were in favor of this being the last one,” he says.He adds that he has a new daughter and wants to spend more time with her.
First let me say that as far as casting in superhero films goes, its pretty hit and miss. I can hardly imagine anyone OTHER than Jackman playing Wolverine, but I can easily see Haley Berry being replaced as Storm. One other role I just cant picture with a different actor is Spiderman.
Tobey Maguire nailed the role so perfectly. He is the perfect geeky but kind Peter Parker, as well as the confident and heroic Spiderman. News of him stepping out of the tights is not new, nor is his co star Kirsten Dunst’s concerns about her Mary Jane role. There have been a lot of mixed reviews as to the validity of Kirsten as MJ, but people have just come to see Tobey as Parker.
Who could do Spiderman if not Tobey? I know the rumour mill has Jake Gyllenhaal as a contender, but I honestly dont see it.
I’m not saying someone CANT do the role. With the exception of Daniel Craig (or any other Bond you favour) or Brandon Routh in Superman (no one can replace Reeve, but Routh did a damn good job), can you think of any roles that were replaced with a different actor who is BETTER loved for the role?
Furthermore, have many actors who walked away from a potentially typecast role as an iconic character had much success outside of it?
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Topher Grace could play Spiderman.
Harrison Ford over Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, maybe?
Considering Topher Grace is playing Eddie Brock (Venom) in Spiderman 3 I think we can pretty much rule him out to replace Tobey
I didn’t mean literally. Just that there is some physical similarity between the two actors that would make him suitable (in a parallel reality, I suppose).
OK. How about Elijah Wood? He’s a good actor and could fit the part.
OK, I’ve been tapped on the shoulder…Jesse Spencer, the young doctor from House MD. He could play Spiderman. How’s that?
THat young fella from the Home IMprovement series could play the spiderman. He would do a bang up job too. Better than that white bread Toby McGuire. Sorry Toby, there’s no e in your first name, and you clearly missed the Mc.
Tobey actually means: I’ll be back for a 4th one……..if there’s MUCH more $$$$$$ involved.
I still think Alec Baldwin was the best of the Jack Ryans.
Cmon…
This one is easy. Toby is not contracted to do a fourth film in the series, and as you say he’s rather KEY for the continued success of the franchise. Him playing hard ball could lead to some silly money coming his way. We’re talking 30-40 mill, easy. That is all.
Yeah why would he do another one his career is doing so well outside of Spiderman. (Thats sarcasm boys)
Christian Bale as Batman made me finally forget all about Adam West.
Toby getting 30-40 million and being the highest paid actor in history? I don’t think so… not a snoballs chance in hell.
They rather get another good actor, pay him $10 million, save over $30 million… and guess what… it won’t make a lick of difference you know why?
Because every single one of us would still be there to see Spider-Man 4, and Sony knows it. Oh you’ll get some “Let’s boycott Spider-Man 4 unless they get Toby” people… but in the end… even they would be there and they know it.
I can’t see Jake in the role. If he ever filled the Spider tights, I can see him as a more sarcastic Spider-Man like the comics.
If it were up to me, I could cast an unknown. Works well for replacing. Look at Routh. If someone popular played the Superman role, it wouldn’t have been the same.
Easy.
Micheal Keaton….Christian Bale.
Brian Cox….Anthony Hopkins.
***************************
AND, by the way, I strongly disagree that Tobey cannot be replaced as Peter Parker. As to who could replace him, I would not speculate; it may be some dude who could be like Kevin Costner was to the “Big Chill” for all I know.
If there is a “Spider-Man 4″ (and from the look of things there will be) will Peter Parker still be in college, as a non-traditional student or just going after another degree? Will he become a teacher (I do believe he was in the comics for a short period of time)? Tobey’s not getting any younger. The bar for the films is at a high right now; when will the bubble burst? If “3″ is stellar, would a question come up to just stop there, get out while the getting is good…
…and have Topher as Eddie Brock /Venom in the spinoff, “Venom : Lethal Protector”…instead.
;)
If Tobey left Spider-Man, I wish him well. The dynamic of the series would change, it might be a good chance to wave bye bye to Kirsten (although I never found her annoying) whose only major crime is sinking ships with loose lips…
Trust me Jake could do it.
if tobey gets paid right he’ll do it, but i can see why he would think differently about doing another film…
these days when you sign the contract your obligated to do like 3 more sequels. the possibility of a spider-man 6 is just too much in my opinion. even though everyones loving these films, everybodies waiting for the bad spider-man film to “ruin” the franchise, and it’s going to happen. no one can “bow out gracefully” to show a really great spider-man story and for everything to make sense after 3 or 4 films…now it’s like spider-man 7..whatever..i hope tobey makes the right choice
Yuck! I normally totally agree with you John. But I definitely can see many different people playing Spiderman. When I think of Tobey Maguire I don’t think of Spiderman and I don’t think that he was really good in the role.
Spiderman’s a geek but he’s also funny and a normal guy. I really wished they would of had Topher Grace play him but it’s a little too late now. I do think the franchise will be just fine without Maguire
Go Seabiscuit go!
Hey Ana,
Rodney wrote this post… not me. :)
Well yeah! I love Toby as Peter Parker but the man can’t be spider man forever. I’m sure he has other things he wants to do.
I think it depends on how long they wait to make spider-man4 if changing a character will effect the film. If they wait about three to four years Toby wouldn’t be fresh in people minds, so it will be easier for the audience accept someone else playing the character. It can sometimes be so jarring when seeing a new face that people will end up not enjoying the movie eventhough it was very good.
I have to agree with the people saying that Maguire can be replaced. He is pretty good, but I can see someone else doing better, don’t ask me who though. I think it would be wise to cast someone we haven’t seen.
I don’t think Maguire’s really left a huge stamp on this role. He’s basically got the same kind of facial expressions in most scenes, and then jumps around and fights people. Then goes home and has drawn out scenes about eating chocolate cake.
I’m hoping if they replace him they get somebody who can act with more of a sense of humor. It’s really not realistic characterization to have somebody constantly depressed.
Toby’s getting older as it is, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to be typecast. Seabiscuit showed people he’s a real actor and not just Spider-Man. Frankly I think it’s a smart move on his part. Jump before you get pushed.
I think topher grace would have been a good pick but now its too late
when i watched the trailer i get confused some times between topher and toby because they look a lot alike
Thank you Mr. Campea, no one gives a flying fuck about Maguire. People don’t go to the movie to see his overpaid ass, they go for spidey and the villains. Sony would laugh in Maguires face if he asked for that much money. I don’t really see him having much of a career after this. However he is in The Good German, which looks great. We shall see.
Hey Jon, while you are up there on that high horse of yours keep in mind that my name is not Campea, I am Rodney.
Secondly, plenty of people care about Maguire. He is good as Spidey and much of what we know of Spiderman on the big screen has a LOT to do with how Tobey played him.
This is just a business move for more money for the Spiderman 4. He’ll most likely do the 4th and final Spiderman with Venom as the villian.
He just wants to get paid more so he not only gets more for doing one more, but so he can demand more when he’s offered other roles.
I could see Jake doing it.
I dont see that actually coming to pass, but if it did, I would have no problem with it. To be honest, I would have preferred Jake as Peter from the beginning.
I dont think Tobey IS Spiderman. What I mean by that is that I dont think the role has been defined by him. He’s good and all but I think another actor could step in fill his shoes without much trouble.
I also wanna give a third vote for the actors that have played Batman.
Adam West – Michael Keaton – Christian Bale
Each time the actor was better than the previous one.
Jay: no, the Bat actors were not better than the previous one. [Although perhaps one could say it isn’t Kilmer or Clooney’s fault: it was the way the characters were written and/or directed)
And, something is bugging the crap out of me.
Why does it seem I am the only person who doesn’t get Rodney and John confused?
I guess it could be worse: Folks could get Sharon and John confused. Ha!
Maybe you are the only one who bothers to read all the way to the end of the post before commenting.
The “Posted by” part is at the end.
One small request: do you think you could stop writing headlines like this one? The “James Bond Gay?” and this one are initially misleading. Tobey saying “no” to Spider-man 4 isn’t even a rumor circulating — he says he’s just considering opting out. “James Bond Gay?” sounds like it’s a post about the new James Bond being homosexual. Of course you expect us to read through the entire entries, which I do, but it’s frankly irritating feeling misled.
Hey Darren,
I purposefully neglected to mention Kilmer or Clooney because that wouldnt have helped me prove the point. The point was that roles can be recast with positive results.
Any body can pick out the mistakes. The question was can anybody think of roles being recast with positive results and the answer was yes. As evidenced by my example.
And I agree that it wasnt Clooney or Kilmer’s fault. That responsibility belongs to Schmacher, Lee Batchler and Akiva Goldsman.
So in the end, it should be noted that YES, Darren, some of the Bat actors have been better than the previous one. As you should have probably noticed my comment was only applicable to the names mentioned. That’s why I only mentioned those three. You should have probably also noticed that I didnt use the phrase “ALL the bat actors have been better that the previous one” and instead said “Each time the actor was better than the previous one” referencing the actors specifically by name in the line above.
Brian, If you have noticed, these misleading titles get your attention and make you read the article. Mission Accomplished.
If we were just posting headlines, then I would see your point. There is much more to this website than just clever headlines.
Thank god.
Get rid of the whiney bitch and put a real actor in the role..
Sorry but IMO TM (among other things) ruined Spiderman for me.. bad casting, so is Kirsten Dunst..
Yeah as above peter parker is a geek but TM does not do the role justice
Does anyone think the new Dumbledore is better than the first?
How about christopher walken?
Tee frickity Hee
Personally that is fine with me because I hated the whole Spider-Man franchise and I think it is good for Sam to stop making these movies because they really, really suck. (Just like Transformers(GAY))
KittyKat, attempting to identify the sexual orientation of a movie is about as useful as your assumption that Sam Raimi is quitting this franchise.
Don’t like the movie, then dont watch it. Raimi has done a wonderful job.
i looooove tobey maguire and i whould loooove to see him in other upcoming spider man movies. but if he decides not to play any more spider man movies i would like to see PETER PETRELLI and NOT jake gyllenhaal.
the guy who plays Peter Petrelli would be perfect for Spiderman. he is a bit more hard core. tobey is too soft he doesnt look like he can do angry or edgy….
well personaly i dont think spider-man would be any gd without toby after all he did start the spider-man films off so if toby stops they should justendthe films all together
Am I the only one who is still ticked that they cast Topher Grace as Venom??? I mean, yeah I will see the movie, but I will never be able to get over having “Eric Foreman” as Eddie Brock. C’Mon.. Eddie is a huge character in Spider-Man’s world and a great character that has a lot of depth and a loyal fan following. Topher IS NOT EDDIE. Eddie is buff.
Personally I would have loved to see HHH (pictured here: http://www.stp.uh.edu/vol68/31/arts/wrestling.jpg) with a haircut of course. He would have been perfect!
for the idiots talking shit about tobey mcguire being depressed… UR ALL JACKASSES.. its not tobey tards, its peter parker’s character. peter parker goes thru that bullshit becuz of the double life and confusion he goes thru with mj and being spiderman and trying to cope wit it… common sense