‘Spider-Man’: Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe Break Record With ‘No Way Home’

[THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS OF SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME]

You may have already heard about it: old friends reunite in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Starting with the villains we spotted in the trailers for Tom Holland’s latest film. The big surprise, however, was that the hero was also hanging out with previous Spider-Man versions, teaming up, to the audience’s enthusiasm, with the Peter Parkers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield played. The outcome of this fan service festival has been splendid, bringing the box office back to pre-pandemic times and gradually establishing itself as a possible contender in the Oscars race.

It has also beaten several world records, and Comic Book reports on a rather funny one, which has to do with the aforementioned Maguire and Willem Dafoe. Both, as Peter Parker and the Norman Osborn who hides behind the Green Goblin mask, reappear in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and they do so 19 years and 225 days after their first appearance, in the Spider-Man that Sam Raimi released back in 2002. This means that Maguire and Dafoe share the record of Marvel heroes (and superheroes in general) who have played their characters the longest, thanks to the almost 20 years that have passed since their debut. All that, keeping in mind that No Way Home would “only” be Maguire’s fourth time as the wall crawler.

The actor was Spider-Man for the (second to) last time in Spider-Man 3, and his return alongside Dafoe has surpassed Hugh Jackman’s career span as Wolverine in the X-Men saga, who previously held the record in this category having 16 years and 232 days elapsed between Bryan Singer’s X-Men and Logan. Since Jackman has actively confirmed he will not play the mutant again, Maguire and Dafoe’s title can rest assured, having Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury (who are the longest-tenured MCU characters having debuted in 2008) behind them.

But, we insist, all this is within the Marvel framework. This November 4, DC will release The Flash, with the promise of seeing Michael Keaton reprising the role of Batman. As the actor first played the Dark Knight in 1989 under Tim Burton’s direction, The Flash would mean that Michael Keaton has played the character for a whopping 33 years: an unbeatable mark.