Way back in August and September of 2020, rumors began flying that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would reprise their roles as Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) from their respective Spider-Movies in the new Spider-Man: No Way Home film, which is enjoying its worldwide release this very day. The rumor was pretty awesome: three live action Spider-Men? It seemed to be taking a page out of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, which is not only the best Spider-Man movie but also the best superhero movie of all time. Fight me.
The persistence of these rumors was unusually strong, and when we got confirmation of other characters from the Maguire/Garfield films (Doctor Octavius, Green Goblin, and Electro), well, it seemed set in stone that it was going to happen.