Andrew Garfield Wants to Play Spider-Man Again (Exclusive)

Andrew Garfield is open to donning the Spidey suit down the road.

The 41-year-old actor, who played the titular Marvel hero in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man and the 2014 sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, most recently appeared as the character in the 2021 hit Spider-Man: No Way Home along with Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland, who also portrayed Spider-Man and his alter-ego, Peter Parker.

For PEOPLE’s Movies of My Life feature, Garfield reflected on several of his films, including the Spider-Man franchise, and weighed in on whether or not he’d reprise the role.

“I think what it would take is a great idea, a great concept. Something that is surprising and odd and fun, joyful. It has to be worthwhile,” he says.

“I think we had such a great time on that last one that you want to just go, “Okay. Leave it. It was great. It worked. It was a risk and it really, really worked,’” he adds about Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

In that film, Garfield’s Spider-Man appeared for the first time on screen since The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which saw his beloved Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) fall to her death. In No Way Home, Garfield’s Spider-Man saves MJ (Zendaya), the love interest of Holland’s Spider-Man, from a similar fate.

“I’m so happy that they had the courage to do it. It’s such a great idea. I would never have had that foresight. So I’m really just proud and happy that I get to be a part of that. But if there’s something that can be concocted and thought up that feels additive to the canon of that character, then for sure,” continues Garfield.

Garfield recently expressed a similar sentiment to Esquire, telling the magazine he’d be willing to return. 

“I would 100 percent come back if it was the right thing, if it’s additive to the culture, if there’s a great concept or something that hasn’t been done before that’s unique and odd and exciting and that you can sink your teeth into,” he said. “I love that character, and it brings joy. If part of what I bring is joy, then I’m joyful in return.”

In his latest film, We Live in Time, Garfield stars as a soon-to-be-divorced food marketing exec who falls for talented chef Almut (Florence Pugh). Their epic romance is upended when she’s diagnosed with cancer, calling their future into question.

Garfield and Pugh share an undeniable chemistry in the film, which director John Crowley saw early on. “They didn’t know each other, they’re quite different kinds of actors, but on day two of rehearsals, I began to see flashes of lightning in a bottle, as it were, and it began to get very exciting.”

We Live in Time is in theaters now.

For more on Andrew Garfield, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.