Andrew Garfield just threw out the most interesting idea anyone has had about the Spider-Man franchise in years — and the best part is how casually he did it.
In an interview with Hits Radio published Wednesday, Garfield was asked whether he’d want to see Emma Stone return to the Spider-Man world as a live-action Spider-Gwen. His answer: “Yeah. I mean, why not? Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.” Then, because apparently that wasn’t enough, he added: “I think she could do anything. She’s such an incredible actor.”
Two sentences. Completely offhand. And somehow the most compelling Spider-Man pitch I’ve heard since the No Way Home casting sheet dropped.
Here’s the thing people are sleeping on: Garfield didn’t name Jon Watts. He didn’t name Sam Raimi. He named the director of Poor Things — the man who spent two hours and twenty minutes turning Emma Stone into a Victorian Frankenstein’s monster navigating her own sexual and philosophical awakening. That’s the filmmaker Garfield thinks belongs on a Spider-Man movie. That says something.
Why Lanthimos Matters Here
Stone has now made three films with Yorgos Lanthimos — Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, and Bugonia. He’s not a random name she’s thrown around. He is, at this point, her most trusted creative collaborator. The films they’ve made together are formally strange, thematically unsettling, and completely unlike anything the studio superhero machine produces. Poor Things won four Oscars. Stone won one of them.
That’s the version of Emma Stone we’re talking about inviting into a Spider-Gwen movie.
And here’s where it gets genuinely interesting. Gwen Stacy became Spider-Gwen — in the comics — because Peter Parker died first. Her universe’s Peter got obsessed with becoming a hero, created his own Lizard formula, and didn’t survive the consequences. Gwen had to live with that. The weight of that origin is genuinely dark, genuinely psychological, and genuinely suited to a filmmaker who doesn’t do things the conventional way.
If any Spider-Person story could survive a Lanthimos treatment, it might be this one.
The Sony Question
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is officially being rebooted. The franchise built around Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter — films that collectively managed to alienate audiences without Peter Parker in a single frame — is being cleared out. Sony is actively figuring out what comes next.
The animated Spider-Verse movies gave them a template for one path: Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen is already confirmed for an animated spinoff. But live-action is still an open question. And a live-action Spider-Gwen film with Stone — not tethered to the main Marvel Studios pipeline, not required to connect to fifteen other movies — is exactly the kind of standalone gamble Sony has room to make right now.
Stone is also in a fundamentally different position than she was when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out in 2014. She’s a two-time Oscar winner. She has genuine creative leverage. If she wanted to return as a version of Gwen on her own terms — with her own director — that conversation looks very different than it would have a decade ago.
Garfield himself is confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, which means his Peter Parker is still an active piece of Marvel’s multiverse architecture. A Gwen Stacy from that same universe surviving, developing powers, and getting her own story isn’t a reach. It’s a logical thread to pull.
What Garfield Said About Brand New Day
In the same interview, Garfield mentioned he’d already seen the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer — just not in ideal conditions. “I saw it, but I was in the makeup chair and watched it without sound,” he said, noting he still needs to properly rewatch it. Even without audio, he was impressed — calling it visually strong and suggesting it leans into a darker, more emotionally intense story for Holland’s Peter.
That tracks with everything the trailer has signaled. And it’s worth noting: the friendship between these two Peters isn’t just a No Way Home moment. Garfield is watching what Holland’s doing and rooting for it. That’s not nothing.
The Short Version
Nobody is greenlighting anything here. Garfield made a comment in a radio interview and the internet caught fire, which is how these things work. But underneath the “wouldn’t that be wild” energy is a pitch that actually holds together: a formally bold filmmaker, an actress at the peak of her career, a character whose origin is genuinely tragic and interesting, and a studio with room to take a swing.
I’m not saying Sony makes the Lanthimos Spider-Gwen movie. I’m saying that if they did, it would be the most interesting comic book film in years — and Andrew Garfield knows it.