Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man is given the nickname of "Peter #3" in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and this actually means quite a lot. No Way Home united Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland's Spideys with its multiversal story of the two original Spider-Men and several of their villains being pulled into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The trio of Spider-Men team up to send the villains home, but in order to do so, the three develop a communication method to work better together.
Holland's Spider-Man designates himself as "Peter #1," with Maguire being "Peter #2," and Garfield receiving his aforementioned Peter #3 title, and this works on a few different levels in setting up a kind of character shorthand for each Spider-Man. To begin, Peter #1's numerical title for each Spider-Man is a subtle ranking of the total cinematic appearances each one has made as of No Way Home from most to least, with Holland having played Peter Parker in six movies, Tobey Maguire appearing in four, and Andrew Garfield in three. Andrew Garfield's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man specifically being Peter #3 captures quite a bit about his history in the role.
In having the fewest number of Spider-Man performances of the three, Garfield's Peter #3 entered No Way Home with not only the least cumulative backstory, but also with the most to prove. This is due to Garfield's last pre-No Way Home appearance being in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which concluded his Spider-Man tenure (at the time) on what many felt to be less than a high note. With his return in No Way Home, Peter #3 was given a second chance that, absent the film invoking Marvel's Multiverse, would have been impossible.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2's polarized reception and box office disappointment (by Spider-Man standards) led to Sony cancelling plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and their larger Spider-Verse plans, including the Sinister Six movie. Sony's deal with Marvel led to Tom Holland becoming the MCU's Spider-Man with Captain America: Civil War, which left Garfield's Wall-Crawling career both greatly truncated and marked by Sony's ambitious but abandoned plans. Garfield's return in No Way Home allowed his Peter Parker a shot at redemption, which he achieves in saving MJ (Zendaya) from her fall after long mourning the demise of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) - an event that fittingly occurs in Garfield's third Spider-Man appearance.
Garfield's Spider-Man being titled Peter #3 is also more than just a throwaway line. Instead, it is an open acknowledgement that his Spidey came and went much more quickly than Maguire's and Holland's. Garfield's Spidey alludes directly to this when he raises his arms and shakes his head to accept the codename of "Peter #3!"
With his return in No Way Home, Garfield's heralded performance has been widely considered one of the biggest highlights of the movie, with many calling for Garfield to continue in his Spider-Man universe in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Garfield being Peter #3 says a lot about what his place in the Spider-Man pantheon once was, and what it has become since his return in No Way Home. That also makes De La Soul's "The Magic Number" inclusion over Spider-Man: No Way Home's end credits quite fitting, as when it comes to Andrew Garfield's reinvigorated Spider-Man, three really is a magic number.
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