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Andrew Garfield: 'Tobey Maguire was a sex machine'

Comic-Con panel for Spider-Man 2 on 'operatic' sequel, Spidey's sexuality and where Mary Jane Watson went

'Spider-Man 2' seems to be proving itself the biggest hit of San Diego's Comic-Con so far, with a rousing ovation greeting the panel and preview clips.

[Comic-Con 2013 Preview]


The panelists  included director Marc Webb, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, as well as actor Dane DeHaan alongside stars Andrew Garfield and Jamie Foxx.



The panel was accompanied by a clip from the film, which only wrapped two weeks ago, and featured both Foxx as the meek electrician who becomes the villainous Electro and Paul Giamatti, who plays Rhino.

Andrew Garfield was on particularly sparkling form, arriving in costume and responding to a criticism of his predecessor "Tobey Maguire was a sex machine in my eyes. He will always be Spider-Man and you can't take that away from me!"

Director Webb explained the thinking behind the current reboot: "The universe that we conceived of began before we started shooting the first movie, but the primary focus was executing this movie as best we could. This is operatic. There's a hugeness of scale to this movie. The ensemble is extraordinary, but it's cohesive and direct, and there's a simple unifying theme at the heart of the film that I think will be impactful. But it's fun teasing other characters, and if you pay attention to this movie you'll see what we're setting up what might come next."

[Garfield up for gay Spider-Man]


Producer Avi Arad confirmed the size of the movie when he spoke to ComingSoon.com just before the panel, saying: "There is a hugeness of scale to this movie. The ensemble is pretty extraordinary. There is a simple unifying theme that is at the heart of the film that will be very impactful. It was fun to tease out little bits of pieces of other characters and if you pay attention in this next movie, you'll see other things that might be in store for us in the future."

One fan, worried that the size of the cast may bury the main story said: “I don’t want another Spider-Man 3, which was too much.”

“There won’t be too much,” responded Webb, expanding on the point that Giamatti’s part is small and the main villain is definitely Jamie Foxx's Electro.“Electro is an incredibly powerful villain that will sustain the breadth and depth of the film,” he said.

"There are a lot of incarnations of Electro in the comics, and I tried to think about a yellow and green suit and couldn't make any logical sense of that. There are elements of his creation I want to protect, but I'll say that when you see a storm cloud come over the horizon and there are those flashes of incredible lightning, that's what we wanted from Electro. I also wanted to protect the emotion of Jamie's performance, and step away from a mask to create a creature that felt human but also godlike. It felt important to give Spider-Man an antagonist who felt creepy and threatening but also immensely powerful."

Foxx added to this:  "We wanted Electro to be serious; I wanted him to be a formidable opponent. I told him, I really want Electro to be angry. It makes the fight more epic - he doesn't want to talk anymore, he wants to fight, he'll burn the city down to get revenge.

"We wanted to do three things: Max [Dillon, Electro's real name] needed to be betrayed by love, by family and by his work. What happens is that it's his birthday and even his mom doesn't remember. That sets it up, the fact that when he turns into this guy, you understand where he's coming from. We gave that journey more than one side."

Andrew Garfield spoke about the development of his character as the troubled web-spinner in the sequel:  "What I discovered on this one is that Peter's a mess, Spider-Man's a mess, but when we meet Spider-Man at the beginning of this film he's taking great pleasure in his power and is in full control of it. A bit like Usain Bolt before he runs the 100m, his preparation is play. Spider-Man now has the confidence to be heroic, but it's not boring; he has the ability to be heroic while also making fun. This time they created a story that didn't just rest on Spider-Man's shoulders; it's a real ensemble. It's enough to attract talent like this (Foxx, DeHaan) and Paul Giamatti, so I got a little more rest this time."

A fan also raised the issue of Garfield saying recently that he saw no problem with Spider-Man being gay, to which Garfield responded: “Spider-Man stands for everyone: black. white, Asian, gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual.” while adding that love between two consenting adults is not a social issue.

In the meantime Garfield expanded on how Peter Parker's main love interest with Gwen would develop in 'Spider-Man 2.'

"Intimacy issues abound," Garfield promises. "I think we all know how difficult it is to be in any kind of relationship, but when one half of the pair is Spider-Man, it's kind of impossible."

Fans were also concerned about the fact that Shailene Woodley - who had been cast to play Mary Jane Watson  - was cut from the film. 

On this point  the producer left the crowd dangling: "We miss Shailene," said Arad, "but we all felt the story got too big to have two girls. So it was the right thing to wait with it. The next movie will be in 3 years from now, so we love this girl, and time will tell."