Written By Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner
Tobey Maguire teaches Tom Holland’s Peter Parker an important lesson in Spider-Man: No Way Home, one that is world famous in pop culture.
According to a source, it is Tobey Maguire, not Uncle Ben, who tells Parker:
With great power comes great responsibility.
Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee wrote that line in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the wall-crawler’s debut.
In that comic, the dialogue wasn’t attributed to a specific character.
Rather, it was the end of Lee’s narrative.
Lee’s exact line was:
And a lean, silent figure slowly fades in the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come — great responsibility!
However, in director Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man, Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) uttered the phrase to Parker (Tobey Maguire).
Image: Sony Pictures
Consequently, many fans have questioned the absence of Uncle Ben in the MCU Spider-Man movies.
After all, that lesson is the heart of Spider-Man’s character; it defines who he is and why he became a superhero.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige wanted his Spider-Man to be fresh.
By having Tobey Maguire say it to Parker, it’d be a poignant passing of the baton.
Originally, I wasn’t going to run this scoop.
To be candid, dropping a leak from a single source is a bit tricky.
Nevertheless, it makes too much sense.
Potential spoilers ahead.
In July 4, 2020, I scooped that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man would perish in this film.
Could this be his final statement, a homage to Raimi’s first movie for Sony?
Tobey Maguire Says Famous Line To Tom Holland In Spider-Man: No Way Home
Raimi directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
It’d seem more fitting for Raimi to provide Tobey Maguire with the final curtain.
Yet, from a storytelling perspective, having Tobey Maguire die in Spider-Man: No Way Home packs the biggest punch.
I asked my insider the specifics of the scene where Tobey Maguire shares it with Holland.
The source provided no answer.
In some ways, Spider-Man: No Way Home is like Feige’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
He unites the past and present while moving into the future.
Nevertheless, Feige isn’t simply one to the let the past die.
Moreover, Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to be killed; it felt unnecessary.
The death of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man illustrates of the gravitas of that famous statement.
Related: Sam Raimi And Tobey Maguire May Reunite In New Spider-Man Film
