Andrew Garfield addresses Spider-Man 4 return rumours

That necessitated a recast, with Tom Holland stepping into the coveted role, while Garfield left the blockbuster space in favour of awards fare like Silence, Hacksaw Ridge, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Tick, Tick... BOOM!.

He eventually returned to the role for an extended cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where a multiverse plot was used to justify multiple Spider-Men inhabiting the same story, but strongly denied his involvement leading up to the film's release.

Now, in a new interview with GQ, Garfield is back to claiming no role in Holland's next Spidey film, but acknowledged that fans now have a fair reason to second-guess his comments.

"I'm gonna disappoint you. Yeah, no," he said to a Spider-Man 4 role. "But I know no one's gonna trust anything I say from now on."

On the prospect of returning as Peter Parker at some point in the future, he continued: "If it felt in line with my soul and was gonna be fun.

"Maybe I'm gonna have like five kids at some point, and I'm gonna need to start saving up for the school tuition or something."

Previously, he had told Esquire that he "would 100 per cent come back if it was the right thing... 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".

Garfield is currently starring in romantic drama We Live in Time, with upcoming gigs including Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt and family flick The Magic Faraway Tree (from Ghosts co-creator Simon Farnaby).

Meanwhile, Holland's fourth Spider-Man film (as yet untitled) is expected to start shooting this year, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton at the helm.

Spider-Man 4 is coming soon to cinemas.

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