Tobey Maguire
Peter Parker/Spider-Man
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May 3, 2002 · Spider-Man: Directed by Sam Raimi. With Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco. After being bitten by a genetically-modified spider, a shy teenager gains spider-like abilities that he uses to fight injustice as a masked superhero and face a vengeful enemy.
- Sam Raimi
- 2 min
- Overview
- Spider-Man and The Avengers in order
- Spider-Man movies in chronological order
- Spider-Man movies in order: the complete experience
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By Gerald Lynch
published 19 March 2022
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can – in precisely this order
(Image credit: Disney / Marvel / Sony)
Is he a bird? Is he a plane? Is this the wrong catchphrase? Yes it is – he’s a spider, and just like catching the eight-legged arachnids, it’s become tricky to know how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order if you’re looking for a complete run through his cinematic legacy.
Modern Marvel movies, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe, aka the MCU, are in part so successful and popular because they weave multiple characters together to create a much larger overall story. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films pour into this mixture and, thanks to the events of No Way Home, have ultimately drawn the Maguire and Garfield Spider-Men into this overarching MCU storyline, too.
So to get the full picture of how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has grown into the hero we now know and love, you’ve got to watch at least a few more MCU films, too. You could argue you should watch all the MCU Marvel movies in order for the full experience, but we’ll leave that for another day. At the very least, these are the essential MCU films to include if you want the full Tom-Holland-as-Peter-Parker story, and how they also relate to the early Spider-folk.
•Spider-Man (2002)
•Spider-Man 2 (2004)
•Spider-Man 3 (2007)
•The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
OK, now we’re really getting into the nitty gritty of things, and where some comic book nerdery comes into play. Just as Spider-Man has existed in multiple forms on screen, so too has he in the Marvel comics he came from. There’s the ‘Ultimate’ universe Spider-Man, multiple different Earth versions (Earth-9500, Earth-982, etc etc), and the Earth-616 universe where he first appeared from the minds of creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Earth-616 then is kind of seen as the ‘core’ Spider-Man experience that many of the films ultimately draw their inspiration from. It’s here where the classic arc was born – bitten by the radioactive spider, sees his beloved uncle Ben die, falls for Mary Jane, and so on. Different films take different elements of these early stories, tweaking them as they go along, but you can…roughly… chart a course through each variation of Spider-Man that more or less walks the steps laid out by this original comic incarnation.
For instance, Peter Parker was in love with Gwen Stacey before he fell for MJ, and so Andrew Garfield’s films, by that metric, come first. Both Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man crushes jump straight to Mary Jane – but Tom Holland’s films skip the origin story of spider-bite and uncle death, so Tobey Maguire’s films would come before them. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s an interesting alternative way to watch the films if you want to more closely mirror the comic book arcs. Probably not best suited to a first viewing though, but here we go!
•The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
•The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
•Spider-Man (2002)
And now, the ultimate combination of everything Spider-Man! Some background first – Spider-Man’s place in cinema is a confusing one, largely because of all the deals in place surrounding the character’s appearances on screen. Despite Disney owning Marvel, it’s actually Sony that holds the rights to the Spider-Man character, thanks to an ongoing deal with the Marvel company in its earlier iteration as an independent publisher. It’s why it took so long for Spider-Man to join the MCU, as it took years before an agreement was made to have the character appear in 2016’s Civil War and ongoing adventures thereafter.
What this has also allowed, however, is Sony to spin the character off in other directions not (at least immediately) connected to the MCU. And so you have the superb Into The Spider-Verse animated film (which you should 100% absolutely not miss) and its upcoming sequel, and a whole slew of related villain movies in the works, such as the Venom franchise. Though details aren’t yet clear, there’s a belief that, with Spider-Man’s MCU obligations apparently wrapped up, Sony is now looking to build out its own interconnected Spider-Man universe, pulling all these strands together.
Will it come to fruition? Who knows. But if you absolutely must spend every last drop of web fluid watching Spider-Man related films… this is it.
•Spider-Man (2002)
•Spider-Man 2 (2004)
•Spider-Man 3 (2007)
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Tobey Maguire filmography. Maguire in April 2007. Tobey Maguire is an American actor and producer. He gained international prominence for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the Spider-Man trilogy, which was directed by Sam Raimi, as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home.
YearTitleRole2023Peter Parker / Spider-Man2022James McKay2021Peter Parker / Spider-Man2017Adult Tim Templeton / NarratorPeople also ask
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The film stars Tobey Maguire as the titular character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The film chronicles Spider-Man's origin story and early superhero career.
- $139 million
A trilogy of Super Hero films starring Tobey Maguire as the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man running from 2002 to 2007. They include Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3. All were directed by Sam Raimi of Evil Dead fame.
Dec 17, 2021 · 1. Spider-Man (2002) Sony Pictures. Spider-Man tells the prototypical Spider-Man origin story: Peter Parker (Maguire), who lives with his aunt and uncle, gets bitten by a...
Film. Video games. Reception. Fans and critics. Accolades. Future. #MakeRaimiSpiderMan4 movement. See also. Notes. References. External links. Peter Parker (Sam Raimi film series) Peter Parker, also known by his alter ego Spider-Man, is a fictional superhero portrayed by Tobey Maguire that is based on the comic book character of the same name.
