Why Spider-Man Costars Always Fall in Love
Why Spider-Man Costars Always Fall in Love
Where there's a web, there's a way.
In Hollywood, there is no shortage of co-stars falling in love. We’ve got Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Lopez and that guy who’s failed to sell his $8.9 million plantation home.
Lately, though I’ve been thinking more about the romantic relationship between the Spider-Man co-stars. All three pairs of them. In case you forgot, every Spider-Man actor has had or is currently in a relationship with the actress who plays their romantic interest, which is a really high shitting-where-you-eat rate compared to other franchises out there.
When we think about Marvel movies, the Spider-Man films are the only ones where it’s been three for three in terms of an onscreen romance translating to an offscreen one. And if we go beyond Marvel and look at movie characters that have been played by multiple actors over the years, it’s also fascinating why this continues to happen for Spider-Man actors, but not the actors who play Batman or James Bond.
I have my theories about why Spider-Men always fall in love with their MJs or Gwen Stacy. Allow me to posit them.
Hypothesis 1: The actors were in a specific age bracket when they made the movies.
Specifically, the Spider-Man actors were all in their 20s. Tobey Maguire was 26 and Andrew Garfield was 28 when they filmed their first Spider-Man movie. And while Tom Holland was 19 the first time he appeared as Spider-Man in “Captain America: Civil War,” he was 20 when he did “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” the first time he shared the screen with Zendaya.
The actresses who played Spider-Man’s love interests were similarly in their 20s, or close. Kirsten Dunst was 19; Emma Stone was 22. And Zendaya, like Holland, was 20.
Why is being in your 20s a big thing? Well, it’s an age when you’re arguably most romantically active. You’re more likely to form romantic attachments with other people, especially ones you’re spending a lot of time with, than if you’re, for example, in your late 30s.
If the actors had been older, there’s a higher probability that one of them could have been married, which would probably deter (most) people from falling in love with their costar and risking a divorce. For reference, Tobey Maguire was 32 when he got married. Emma Stone, 31, and Kirsten Dunst, 40. And the estimated median age for men and women to marry in the U.S. was 30.4 and 28.6, respectively, in 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
But because Spider-Man as a character is supposed to be a teenager, at least at the beginning, the likelihood that they would cast an actor in their 30s and older is slimmer. Hollywood does like to cast adults as teenagers, but having a 35-year-old play a high school student would be pushing it too much for people.
On the other side of things, the Spider-Man actors being in their twenties, rather than actual teens, contributes to them having a romance that’s long enough to actually mean something. Meet people too young and you’re just a snot-faced kid who might have a crush on someone that comes and goes. You’re less likely to have a full-fledged relationship that lasts long enough for the paparazzi to catch wind. And if you’re meeting a costar when you’re both child actors and are essentially growing up together, well, you might end up thinking of them more as family, like these two.
At least, that’s my theory as to why there have been virtually no offscreen romances between the main cast of Harry Potter actors, especially the child actors who were in the franchise since Day 1. And why, with the exception of Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton, who are also in the 20s age bracket, no couples have come out of “Stranger Things.”
So age is a big factor. The specific kind of story “Spider-Man” is telling is another.
Hypothesis 2: Spider-Man movies are conducive to romances.
When interviewed by The New York Times, producer Amy Pascal said she had cautioned Tom Holland and Zendaya against dating. “Don’t go there — just don’t. Try not to,” Pascal warned. “I gave the same advice to Andrew and Emma. It can just complicate things, you know? And they all ignored me.”
It’s hard to blame them for ignoring Pascal’s advice. Have two young, attractive people spend large stretches of time together in an isolated environment and it’s likely sparks are going to fly. Add that to the fact that romance is such a major plotline that runs throughout all of the movies. When Spider-Man isn’t fighting his arch-enemy, he’s navigating his relationship with his love interest, which means there are a lot of scenes the two leads have to film together. That’s very different from huge-ensemble-y movies where you might be in a movie with the same actor, but never see them until the press tour because you don’t actually ever share a scene together.
Also, unlike the James Bond or Batman movies, where the love interest is played by a different actress in almost every movie, the main actress has stayed the same throughout the respective “Spider-Man” runs. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst filmed three movies together (though the two seemed to have dated during the filming of the first movie and broke up before the second). Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone filmed two, and Tom Holland and Zendaya so far have filmed three together (and yes, technically, Zendaya’s MJ isn’t the main romantic interest in “Homecoming,” but her character is already present in that movie).
Right now Tom Holland seems poised to continue filming more movies as Spider-Man, though maybe eventually he will tire of emoting in Lycra. And when he does retire from the role, it seems almost inevitable that we’ll be getting another Spider-Man movie in a couple of years, whether or not we actually want it.
If that does happen, I’ll bet good money that another offscreen romance is going to come out of it. At this point, it’s almost required.