Amazing Tidbits From Every Spider-Man Movie Ever Made

These behind-the-scenes revelations are fascinating, to say the least.

Jesse

• Published in Film & TV
• June 17, 2022

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly expanding, and with each new movie comes a ton of fascinating Easter eggs, behind-the-scenes stories, and fun trivia. What more could a fan ask for?

Some of us are just happy to see our favorite superhero on the big screen again, but others like to dig a little deeper and find out everything they can about how the movie was made. And we're not just talking about who played what role - we want to know all the gossip, drama, and fascinating facts you usually only hear about when the DVD commentary comes on.

In this piece, we'll be putting the spotlight on everyone's favorite wall-crawler - Spider-Man.

There has been no shortage of Spider-Man movies over the years. In fact, there have been a whopping nine Spider-Man films released since 2002.

And with another Spider-Man movie on the horizon, we're taking a look back at some of the most interesting facts from every single Spider-Man film ever made.

Yes, that includes the Tobey Maguire movies, the Andrew Garfield movies, and the biggest leading Spider-Man of them all, Tom Holland.

We did a little digging, and we have a lot to unpack. Trust us; even if you consider yourself a diehard fan, there's a good chance you don't know most of these.

Facts about Spiderman 1 (2002)

1. On the Spider-Man set in Los Angeles, four Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and a $25,000 reward was issued for their return. At the time, a spokesman stated

A spokesperson at the time released a statement saying, "A spokesperson said at the time, "We consider these costumes valuable property, and we hope this reward will help to get them back."

2. John Dykstra, the film's head of visual effects, says in the DVD commentary that Tobey Maguire conducted real stunt work for the scene in which Peter catches Mary Jane and the contents of her lunch tray.  According to him, It took 156 takes.

3. In an interview, Hugh Jackman indicated that he would make a cameo appearance in the film as Wolverine. However, it didn't happen for a surprising reason: his costume went missing.

4. After it's release in the US on May 3rd 2002, Spider-Man became the fastest movie to top $100 million in its opening weekend. The movie  made a record $39.4 million on its first day.

Facts about Spiderman 2 (2004)

5. After his work on 2003's Seabiscuit, Tobey Maguire's back injury started acting up, and he was almost replaced. Rumors circulated at the time that Maguire's management had staged a back injury in an effort to negotiate a bigger paycheck.

He told IGN, "First of all, this is a back condition I've had for three years or four years, on and off. Sometimes it doesn't really bother me at all. Sometimes it bothers me a little. Sometimes it bothers me a lot. ... I felt it was my responsibility to disclose my back discomfort to the studio, to the insurance company, and to the filmmakers, which I did. They were understandably concerned."

6. Alfred Molina revealed to IGN that a group of sixteen puppeteers were responsible for controlling Dr. Otto Octavius's artificial limbs.

The puppeteers were made up of "15 guys and one woman", and their movements were choreographed by Eric Hayden.

Facts about Spiderman 3 (2007)

7. Using a microscope, Sam Raimi analyzed 12 different types of sand in order to create the Sandman.

"I had people bring in 12 different kinds of sand — this is where people think the movie industry is insane — so I could look at it," Raimi said.

8. While Sam Raimi clearly enjoyed the sand scenes in Spider-Man 3, he was unimpressed with the film's overall tone. Raimi admitted to Collider in 2021 that the bad reception of the third Spider-Man film made him hesitant to take on another superhero directing assignment with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

In Raimi's words, "I didn't know that I could face it again because it was so awful, having been the director of Spider-Man 3. The internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie, and they sure let me know about it. So it was difficult to take back on... I didn't think I would be doing another superhero movie. It just happened."

9. Ben Kingsley had been slated as the Vulture in Spider-Man 3, but his character was removed during contract negotiations because producer Avi Arad wanted the movie's nemesis to be Venom.

11. In 2018, Avi Arad admitted to Screen Rant that he regretted insisting on featuring Venom in the movie.

Interesting facts about The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

11. On The Howard Stern Show in 2016, actress Sally Field, who played Aunt May in both Amazing Spider-Man films, admitted to taking on the role as a favor for her friend and fellow producer Laura Ziskin, who died soon after filming wrapped on the movie.

Field stated that, "We knew it would be her last film, and she was my first producing partner, and she was spectacular."

12. In an interview with Time, Director Marc Webb revealed that Stan Lee sought to pitch lines for his cameo role in the movie. It would appear that he intended to say, "Oh, Dostoevsky. He’s like the Russian Stan Lee." To be honest, that's a really good line.

Facts about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

13. Dan DeHaan dropped 7 pounds in two days while filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2 because of how much he was sweating in his Green Goblin costume.

He explained that, "Basically, the first day, they just had to pour buckets of ice water down my suit, but it was literally turning to steam — that was how hot my body was. The next day, they got me this cooling vest; I wore it underneath the suit. It has these tubes, so in between takes, I would hook up to a cooler full of ice water, and it would pump ice water through me and keep my core cooler. But I lost 7 pounds in two days of filming! Which was pretty much all the weight I’d put on for the movie!"

14. Marc Webb, the film's director, told Den of Geek that they spent three nights filming in Times Square before building their own version in Long Island.

In his words, "We created an environment that’s scaled to life size. And it was massive. There wasn’t enough equipment in New York to do it. We had to fly equipment in from Los Angeles and Canada to achieve what we needed to achieve. It was logistically by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do."

15. Unfortunately, yet another Spider-Man sequel left several people heartbroken. During a 2016 interview, Andrew Garfield stated that he "got heartbroken a little bit" by the process of working on the movies.

According to Garfield, "There’s something about being that young in that kind of machinery which I think is really dangerous. I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America, really; it’s a corporate enterprise mostly. ... I found that really, really tricky. I signed up to serve the story and to serve this incredible character that I’ve been dressing as since I was 3, and then it gets compromised and it breaks your heart."

Facts about Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

16. In preparation for the role of Peter Parker, Tom Holland spent two days shadowing a student at the Bronx High School of Science.

Holland shadowed a senior by the name of Arun Bishop. During his "enrollment," Holland acted as Bishop's cousin Ben, spoke with an American accent, and had an extensive narrative involving a father in the military. Ben's true identity was only known to a few members of the staff, including the teachers. When Holland tried to pass himself off as Spider-Man on day two, not many of the other students believed him. They had to check up on his (actual) name using their phones. "It was crazy; nobody recognized him." Bishop said.

17. A report from Variety stated that Spider-Man: Homecoming star Robert Downey Jr. was paid $10 million for his role. Furthermore, he was on screen for seven and a half minutes, according to IMDb. That's about $1.33 million for every minute of screen time.

18. Jennifer Connelly voiced Karen, the voice of Spider-Man's costume. Interestingly, she's married to Paul Bettany, the voice of JARVIS, aka the voice in Iron Man's suit.

19. An impostor was dispatched to the premiere by Hannibal Buress, who played Peter's gym teacher Coach Wilson. Buress paid actor Joe Caroll $500 for his services after he advertised on Twitter that he was seeking a "lookalike with solid comedic timing for an event tonight."

Facts about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

20. Among the reasons Chris Miller and Phil Lord were interested in working on this project was the potential to create an entirely new visual style that was largely influenced by comic book imagery.

Miller stated that, "It ended up being a very complicated mashing of CG animation and 2D hand-drawn animation and a bunch of new software to render textures in a stylistic and hand-painted style. The end result was that any frame that you pause will look like a painting, done by an artist, by hand. That was what we wanted to do, sort of honor the legacy that it came from."

21. Miller and Lord disclosed in the same interview that the first draft of the script ended with the entrance of Dr. Strange. The Lord revealed that, "It was the first draft, like three years ago. It ended with Doctor Strange. Literally, the last frame was Dr. Strange going, 'Hello.'

22. In an email to Edgar Wright, one of the three co-producers of the picture, Rodney Rothman inquired if he could come up with a spoof version of one of Wright's movies for the film's background humor.

Wright definitely deliverer. Spot a billboard for a sequel to Shaun of the Dead, named From Dusk Till Shaun, in Times Square.

Facts about Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

23. Jake Gyllenhaal revealed in a interview with Howard Stern that he missed his lines in a scene with Tom Holland and Samuel L. Jackson on the first day of production because he was so scared.

24. J.K. Simmons makes a surprise appearance as J. Jonah Jameson, the character he played in the Raimi trilogy, in the first post-credits sequence of this picture, and the directors were eager to conceal his involvement.

In an interview with Collider, director Jon Watts revealed that he waited until the very last minute to persuade Simmons to because he wanted to reduce the likelihood of his cameo leaking.

Facts about Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

25. In an interview with the New York Times, producer Amy Pascal revealed that she cautioned Tom Holland and Zendaya, as well as Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, not to date one other. Neither of the couples heeded her instruction.

In Pascal's words, "I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture. Don’t go there — just don’t. Try not to. I gave the same advice to Andrew and Emma. It can just complicate things, you know? And they all ignored me."

26. According to set decorator, Rosemary Brandenburg, Dr. Strange's headquarters, the Sanctum Sanatorium, was inspired by a basement in the Vatican.

27. As a last note, the Hollywood Reporter learned that Alfred Molina personally requested an autographed photo from Jacob Batalon (who played Ned, Peter's best buddy).  It turns out Molina's stepdaughter is quite a fan of Batalon's, so he was happy to oblige with an autograph.

So, there you have it! We hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we enjoyed putting this post together.

Do you have a favorite tidbit that we shared? Let us know in the comments below.

And don't forget to share this post with your friends and family who are just as big of fans of the wall crawler as you are!

Jesse