50 Fun Facts About The Amazing Spider-Man

Who directed The Amazing Spider-Man?

His only previous feature was 500 Days of Summer; Kathryn Bigelow and David Fincher were considered before him.

Which 2009 film was the reboot director's feature debut?

He was paid roughly $1 million to direct the reboot and sought a raise for the sequel.

Which two directors were considered for the reboot before Webb was chosen?

Fincher had also been on Sony's list for the 2002 film, when he refused to tell the origin story.

On what date did Columbia and Marvel announce the series would be rebooted?

Raimi had pulled out, and Avi Arad felt none of the Spider-Man 4 scripts were good enough to continue.

Which comic line did Webb say influenced the world of the reboot?

Jamie Foxx later said his Electro design was based on the Ultimate Marvel version too.

How did Andrew Garfield say he calmed his nerves about winning the part of Peter Parker?

Michael Angarano, Jamie Bell, Josh Hutcherson, Logan Lerman and Anton Yelchin were among the rivals for the role.

Which pop-star brother was among the actors considered for Peter Parker?

Drake Bell and Alden Ehrenreich also made the list; Ehrenreich was later considered for Harry Osborn too.

What did Garfield admit to doing the first time he put on the Spider-Man suit?

He tried to imagine a better actor in it, and was allowed nothing but underwear beneath the skintight costume.

How many stunt doubles did Garfield have on the first film?

He still did many of his own stunts after parkour lessons, yoga and Pilates.

Who plays Gwen Stacy in the Amazing Spider-Man films?

She and Garfield were screen-tested together, and they began dating during the shoot.

Which character, long rumoured, was never actually in the first film's script?

Reports that Sony was casting two female leads set off the speculation in September 2010.

Who plays Dr. Curt Connors in The Amazing Spider-Man?

Fassbender was also considered; Ifans insisted on playing the Lizard himself rather than leaving it to a large stunt double.

Which literary character did the actor playing Connors compare him to?

He saw the transformation as euphoria and hubris, like a drug addict's high, and said Connors is not really a villain at all.

What did Ifans wear on his right arm so it could be erased in post-production?

It made Connors an amputee on screen; he also wore a mo-cap suit and a cardboard head to play the nine-foot Lizard.

Why did Webb decide against giving the Lizard a snout?

He wanted the character to read as both human and monstrous.

Who plays Uncle Ben in the Amazing Spider-Man films?

Webb wanted him as a blue-collar man with a different outlook from the science-minded Peter.

Why did Sally Field say she took the role of Aunt May?

She knew it would be her friend's last film; Ziskin died in 2011. Field later said the part was hard to find three dimensions in.

Which Indian actor plays Oscorp executive Rajit Ratha?

Webb was a fan from In Treatment, The Namesake and The Warrior; the actor's sons insisted he take the part.

Which element from the comics did the reboot restore after the Raimi films dropped it?

Webb used them to showcase Peter's intelligence and wanted it obvious that he built them and the suit himself.

Which camera made The Amazing Spider-Man a Hollywood first?

It was shot in 3D at 5K resolution; the lightweight bodies suited the rigs used for action sequences.

Along which Harlem roadway was a huge practical web-swinging rig built?

The rig was hundreds of feet long and let a man swing through real traffic instead of CGI.

Whose movements did stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong study to shape Spider-Man's swinging?

Webb leaned on stunt performers far more than the CGI-heavy Raimi films.

Which Brooklyn street stood in for the Parkers' Forest Hills home?

A row of houses in Windsor Terrace doubled for Queens.

Which two silent comedians influenced the subway-car fight scene?

The real Gompertz-Makeham law of mortality inspired the film's decay rate algorithm.

Who composed the score for the first Amazing Spider-Man?

He declined to return for the sequel, which went to Zimmer and a supergroup nicknamed The Magnificent Six.

What role does Stan Lee play in his first-film cameo?

In the sequel he turns up as a guest at Peter and Gwen's graduation.

Which 2002-film burglar actor returned as limo driver Alfred after asking for his old role?

The burglar who shoots Uncle Ben went to Leif Gantvoort instead.

Which keyword unlocked a Lizard featurette in the viral Oscorp internship application?

The campaign also projected the Spider-Man logo onto the Sydney Opera House, the Colosseum and the Kremlin.

Which charity did Garfield become an ambassador for ahead of the first film?

Producer Laura Ziskin had co-founded it and died of breast cancer the year before release.

Where did The Amazing Spider-Man hold its world premiere?

It opened on June 13, 2012, three weeks before the US release on July 3.

Which film ended The Amazing Spider-Man's ten-day run at number one in 2012?

Its $35 million Tuesday opening was a record until Far From Home beat it in 2019.

Which was the first film's biggest market outside North America?

Its first week there beat Spider-Man 3's entire Chinese run; it finished with $48.8 million.

Which critic called the reboot the worst superhero film since Green Lantern?

Ebert, by contrast, felt it gave better reasons for Peter becoming a hero but said the Lizard had the range of Godzilla.

Which studio developed the tie-in video game for the first film?

The same team had made Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time; the game is set after the film.

What was The Amazing Spider-Man 2 subtitled in international markets?

Jamie Foxx's villain was a blue-painted Oscorp engineer who took four and a half hours in makeup.

Who plays Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Redmayne, Claflin, Booth, Michael B. Jordan and Boyd Holbrook were all considered for the role.

Which actress filmed scenes as Mary Jane for the sequel that were then cut entirely?

The character was dropped in June 2013 to keep the focus on Peter and Gwen.

Who plays Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

He had once been considered for Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2; his appearance here is uncredited.

Who plays Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino, in the sequel?

Spider-Man captures him early on and Harry later springs him from prison for the closing fight.

Felicity Jones plays a character credited only by her first name. What is it?

A marketing video gave her surname as Hardy, the alter ego of Black Cat, and Lisa Joy was hired to write a Black Cat spin-off.

On what format was The Amazing Spider-Man 2 shot, unlike its predecessor?

It was also the first Spider-Man film shot entirely in New York state, the biggest production the state had hosted.

In which upstate city was a car chase filmed because of looser speed laws than NYC?

Scenes on the city's Main Street were digitally altered to look like Manhattan.

What ad-libbed word of Gwen's made the final cut when Spider-Man webs her hand to a car?

She went off script and the take stayed in the finished film.

How long did the effects for the Times Square battle with Electro take to complete?

The crew shot over 36,000 photos, including more than 100 billboards, to rebuild the square digitally.

What was Hans Zimmer's collaborator group on the sequel's score credited as?

Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr and Junkie XL were among them; the name nods to the Sinister Six.

Which two artists joined Zimmer and Pharrell on the closing-credits song It's On Again?

The soundtrack came out on Columbia and Madison Gate Records in April 2014.

A mid-credits teaser from which other studio's film confused UK audiences of the sequel?

It came from a deal between Webb and 20th Century Fox, and some viewers assumed a crossover was coming.

Who was set to write and direct the two-part Sinister Six spin-off that never got made?

It had a November 2016 date; the Sony hack and the Marvel Studios deal killed it.

According to the Sony hack, which villain was a resurrected Gwen set to become in a fourth film?

A resurrected Gwen would have taken the symbiote role; the franchise was cancelled in early 2015 instead.

In which 2021 film did Garfield, Ifans and Foxx all reprise their roles?

The multiverse plot linked the Webb films to both the Raimi trilogy and Tom Holland's MCU series.