45 Fun Facts About The Amazing Spider-Man

In The Amazing Spider-Man, what is the job of Gwen Stacy's father?

Police captain George Stacy distrusts Spider-Man, and as he lies dying he makes Peter promise to keep Gwen out of his dangerous life.

Which 2009 film was Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb's feature debut?

500 Days of Summer, a Golden Globe-nominated romance, was Marc Webb's first feature after years of music videos, and in January 2010 Sony handed him the Spider-Man reboot.

Whose run as Spider-Man ended when Sony scrapped Spider-Man 4 and announced a reboot in 2010?

Tobey Maguire was out along with director Sam Raimi because, producer Avi Arad said, they never found a story strong enough to justify a fourth film.

Which comic series did director Marc Webb say influenced the world of The Amazing Spider-Man?

Ultimate Spider-Man shaped the film's look more than Steve Ditko's original comics did, Webb said, because he loved its adolescent, playful quality.

Andrew Garfield calmed his Spider-Man screen-test nerves by pretending he was making what?

A short film with friends was the trick: Garfield told himself he was fifteen, the crew were his mates and there was no pressure, which freed him to play.

Which pop star was up for the part of Peter Parker in the year Andrew Garfield won it?

Joe Jonas went back for callbacks and hoped a director who came from music videos gave him an in; he later said losing such parts leaves you destroyed, though Garfield was the right choice.

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

Shedding a tear was his honest reaction to the spandex, Garfield said, and he had to imagine a much better actor's face inside the suit because his own made no sense to him.

Which villain does Harry Osborn become in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

The Green Goblin is born when Harry, dying of the disease that killed his father, has himself injected with spider venom as a cure and it warps him instead.

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

Emma Stone had never met Garfield before she auditioned, but their chemistry was immediate at the screen test and soon turned into an off-screen romance.

Which long-rumoured character was never actually in the script of The Amazing Spider-Man?

Mary Jane Watson was reported as one of two love interests Sony was casting in September 2010, but two months later The Wrap found she was not in the screenplay and apparently never had been.

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

Rhys Ifans took one look at the big double hired to play the nine-foot Lizard, said no, and insisted that every movement of the creature be his own.

The actor playing The Amazing Spider-Man's Curt Connors compared him to which literary doctor?

Dr. Jekyll came to mind because the Lizard becomes almost a drug for Connors, an alter ego as strong, brave and agile as the broken scientist cannot be in his own life.

The actor behind The Amazing Spider-Man's Lizard performed on set in a green suit and a head made of what?

Cardboard was all the on-set head amounted to, yet the actor said every blink and frown of the finished digital Lizard came from his own face.

Why did Webb decide against giving the Lizard a snout?

So the creature could convey human emotion, Webb passed over the snouted Lizard of some comics; he wanted the actor's performance to survive inside the digital monster.

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

Martin Sheen's Uncle Ben is streetwise and blue-collar, not a scientist, and Webb wanted that gap between Ben and his science-minded nephew to shape their relationship.

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

As a favour to producer Laura Ziskin, her friend and first producing partner, Field took a part she admitted was not her kind of movie, knowing it would be Ziskin's last film.

Which Indian actor plays Oscorp executive Rajit Ratha?

Irrfan Khan admitted he did not want to join what he called a violent American fantasy, but both his sons were excited and kept insisting that he take it.

Which comic-book element did The Amazing Spider-Man restore after the Raimi films dropped it?

Mechanical web-shooters returned because Webb wanted the strands to come from devices built by a young, inventive Peter, as in the comics, rather than from his body as in the 2002 film.

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

The RED Epic had never been used on a major studio film until this one began shooting in December 2010; its light bodies suited the 3D rigs used for action scenes.

The Amazing Spider-Man's crew built a huge rig to swing a stuntman through traffic in which Manhattan neighbourhood?

Harlem's Riverside Drive viaduct hosted the rig because Webb wanted to ground the stunts, swinging a real man down the street instead of animating him.

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

An Olympic gymnast swung on a high bar while Armstrong filmed him from every angle, because he believed the human eye can always spot a real body in motion.

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

James Horner, the composer of Titanic, got the job because Webb wanted someone who could do both grandeur and intimacy, and his first cue struck the director as spectacular.

What role does Stan Lee play in his cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man?

A school librarian in earphones, Lee stamps books and listens to music, oblivious to Spider-Man and the Lizard wrecking the library behind him.

The actor who shot Uncle Ben in 2002's Spider-Man plays what in The Amazing Spider-Man?

A limo driver in the wrong place when the Lizard attacks was Michael Papajohn's part this time; he had asked to shoot Uncle Ben again, but the killer was recast.

In The Amazing Spider-Man, which old possession of his father's leads Peter to Oscorp?

A briefcase with a secret compartment hides his father's formula, the missing piece that Peter later hands to Dr. Curt Connors.

Which charity did Andrew Garfield become an ambassador for ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man?

Stand Up to Cancer sold Spider-Man T-shirts for its campaign, which Garfield said underscored the idea that anyone has the power to be a hero.

Which New York bridge does the Lizard attack in The Amazing Spider-Man?

The Williamsburg Bridge is where Curt Connors first turns into the Lizard and goes on a rampage, forcing Spider-Man to save the people caught in the attack.

Which country was The Amazing Spider-Man's biggest market outside North America?

China earned the film $48.8 million, and its first week there alone beat everything Spider-Man 3 had made in the country.

Critic Ty Burr called The Amazing Spider-Man the worst superhero film since which flop?

Green Lantern was Ty Burr's yardstick in a one-and-a-half-star review that called the reboot dumbed down, tarted up and almost shockingly uninspired.

Which studio developed the tie-in video game for The Amazing Spider-Man?

Beenox, fresh from Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time, set its game as an epilogue to the film, so it spoiled the plot for anyone who played before watching.

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

Rise of Electro was the subtitle used in markets such as New Zealand, naming the villain: Max Dillon, a mild Oscorp engineer whose new power feeds his hidden anger.

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

Dane DeHaan won the role after Sony tested actors including Eddie Redmayne, Sam Claflin and Douglas Booth; he plays Harry as Peter's dying childhood friend.

Which actress shot scenes as a Peter Parker love interest for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, only to be cut entirely?

Shailene Woodley filmed two or three backyard scenes chatting with Garfield over a fence, but they were cut to keep the focus on Peter and Gwen.

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

Chris Cooper plays Norman as a man on his deathbed, withered by a disease that his son Harry soon learns he has inherited.

Who plays Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Paul Giamatti plays the Russian thug who hijacks a plutonium shipment in a truck and later returns in a heavily armoured suit bristling with guns.

Harry Osborn's assistant in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 shares which first name with the comics' Black Cat?

Felicia is played by Felicity Jones; the name points to Felicia Hardy, the cat burglar of the comics, though the films never put her in the costume.

For The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Jamie Foxx spent over four hours a day being painted which colour?

Blue paint and prosthetics took four and a half hours to apply, a daily ordeal that Foxx said really helped him find the character.

Which upstate New York city's Main Street was dressed as Manhattan for a car chase in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Rochester hosted a 200-person crew for ten days while a high-speed chase and a gunfight were staged on Main Street, dressed to look like New York City.

The crew took 36,000 photos of which New York landmark to rebuild it for The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Times Square was only partly the real thing on screen: much of the battle was shot on a replica set on Long Island, with the photos stitched over it in about a year of work.

Hans Zimmer's band of collaborators on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 score was credited under what name?

The Magnificent Six was the supergroup Marc Webb and Hans Zimmer formed for the film, with Pharrell Williams and guitarist Johnny Marr in the line-up.

Which two artists joined Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 song It's On Again?

Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar recorded It's On Again, which Pharrell Williams produced and Hans Zimmer gave a cinematic touch; it plays over the closing credits.

A mid-credits teaser for which rival studio's film confused UK audiences of The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

X-Men: Days of Future Past got the plug because Fox let Webb direct the sequel only if Sony promoted its film for free; some British fans assumed a crossover was coming.

Who was set to write and direct Sony's unmade Sinister Six spin-off from The Amazing Spider-Man films?

Drew Goddard was hired to write the villain team-up with an eye to directing it, and later said the film went down because of the Sony hack.

Which hobby marks Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker as an outsider by choice in The Amazing Spider-Man?

Skateboarding gives this Peter his attitude: Webb called him an outsider by choice who has a skateboard, and the principal scolds him for riding it in the hallway.

In which film did Andrew Garfield return as Peter Parker seven years after The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Spider-Man: No Way Home used a multiverse plot to bring Garfield's Peter face to face with the two other screen Spider-Men and villains from both earlier film series.