Spider-Man Stunt Doubles

Remember when Tobey Maguire was cast to play Spider-Man back in 2002, and everyone thought he didn't look pumped up enough to play our favourite wall crawler? Well to keep fan-boys from going crazy about this casting choice, Tobey proved everyone wrong by buffing up. Check out the scene of him standing in front of the mirror, admiring his toned physique.

However, I'm pretty sure all of us know that when it came time to donning the Spider-Man costume, Tobey was probably not in it all the time (except those times when he's unmaksed). For the rest of the scenes with Spider-Man, I'm pretty sure they used stunt doubles. Now I don't have an issue with stunt doubles. They professionals, and I'm sure the director wouldn't want the actor to get hurt for nothing.

However, I draw the line when they start to use stunt doubles that don't share the same physique as Tobey. When you see Spider-Man and he looks taller or has body shape that is different from the actor playing Peter Parker,  it really draws me out of the movie.


See below for Tobey without his mask. This is his actual physique. (Though I think he progressively got fatter in the subsequent movies...)

Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man (leftmost), Spider-Man 2 (centre) and Spider-Man 3 (rightmost)

Now compare that with the stunt people in the Spider-Man costumes.


Spider-Man costume in Spider-Man (leftmost), Spider-Man 2 (centre) and Spider-Man 3 (rightmost)

I mean look at the physique of these people in the Spider-man suits. In the first movie, it's plausible that Tobey was inside in the suit. However when it came to the second movie, I found it slightly hard to believe that. The body was too V-shaped to belong to Tobey. The person in the spidey suit for third movie also didn't resemble Tobey.

I know this is kinda nitpicking, but I hope when Andrew Garfield dons the spidey costume in Amazing Spider-Man next year, they choose stunt people that have the same physique as Andrew. And since they're trying to use as much physical stunts as possible, its even more imperative that the stunt double's body matches Andrew's as closely as possible to be believable.