Kevin Feige Says Recasting Spider-Man Right After Andrew Garfield Was ‘a Bit of a Risk’

Marvel Studios has spent the better part of a decade building Tom Holland’s Spider-Man into one of the MCU’s most beloved corners, but that success wasn’t always a guaranteed outcome. Bringing the character back into the fold required Marvel and Sony to overcome years of studio politics, competing rights issues and the tricky task of following two previous live-action versions of the same hero.

That challenge became even more complicated given how recently the franchise had already gone through a casting change before Holland ever entered the picture. Andrew Garfield’s brief run as Peter Parker in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ films had only wrapped a year earlier when Marvel and Sony finalized their deal to bring the character into the MCU.

Speaking about that decision, Kevin Feige acknowledged just how uncertain the move felt at the time. “Recasting him so soon after Andrew was a bit of a risk,” Feige said, sitting alongside longtime producer Amy Pascal during a joint interview reflecting on Holland’s four-film run as Spider-Man within the MCU.

Feige explained that bringing Holland’s Peter Parker into ‘Captain America: Civil War’ before giving him a standalone film was a deliberate strategy to help soften that risk, easing audiences into the new casting through an ensemble appearance rather than a full solo reintroduction. He also pointed to another creative gamble taken alongside that casting decision, noting that stretching Spider-Man’s origin story across three separate films represented a considerable departure from how Sam Raimi handled the character’s introduction in a single film decades earlier.

That approach extended beyond just pacing decisions, according to Feige, who highlighted the introduction of non-superpowered supporting characters like Ned and MJ as central to grounding Peter’s story within a genuine high school environment. Pascal echoed that sentiment, framing the collaboration between Marvel and Sony as rooted in a shared, genuine love for the character that ultimately convinced both studios to work together despite the inherent complications of blending two separate corporate structures.

Pascal also reflected on the rarity of that kind of successful cross-studio partnership, noting that history is littered with failed attempts at studios intermingling characters and rights. She credited the collaboration’s success directly to both her and Feige’s personal investment in getting the character right, rather than treating it as a purely business-driven arrangement.

The conversation also touched on the trilogy’s decision to scale down rather than escalate in its most recent installment, following the massive multiverse-spanning stakes of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ Feige noted that going bigger simply wasn’t a viable path forward after uniting three separate live-action Spider-Man actors on screen together, joking that it’s difficult to top an event of that scale.

Beyond reflecting on past decisions, the conversation also touched on where the character might head next. Feige confirmed that Holland has already shared his own vision for how the torch might eventually be passed to Miles Morales, though Feige stopped short of confirming any concrete alignment on execution, joking that alignment would come “if and when we get there.”

Feige also addressed lingering fan curiosity about whether Tom Hardy’s Venom and Holland’s Spider-Man might ever share the screen together, admitting the studios have never gotten especially close to making that crossover happen despite ongoing interest. He confirmed that an animated project featuring the pairing remains in the works, offering fans at least one avenue to see the two characters interact.

On broader franchise matters, Feige confirmed that ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ remains on schedule for its planned release date, and that ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ will not be split into two separate films. He also indicated that Marvel’s storytelling approach coming out of ‘Secret Wars’ draws inspiration from Jonathan Hickman’s celebrated comic book event from a decade ago, without characterizing the aftermath as a full reboot of the MCU.

Between reflecting on the risks that shaped Holland’s Spider-Man run and teasing where the character’s story goes from here, Feige and Pascal’s conversation offered a rare, candid look at just how uncertain some of the franchise’s now-iconic decisions felt in the moment.

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