Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: cbs, Nicholas Hammond, once upon a time in hollywood, spider-man, spider-man: no way home

Spider-Man TV's Nicholas Hammond on Not Getting "No Way Home" Invite

Before Marvel struck gold in its success with the Sam Raimi live-action Spider-Man trilogy for Sony, the comics giant made their first attempt at serializing his stories on television with Nicholas Hammond in the title role on the short-lived series (aside from the Toei partnership in Japan for their loose adaptation) The Amazing Spider-Man in the 1970s. That American-Australian actor spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming Sony MCU sequel No Way Home, his opinion about the cinematic versions of Peter Parker, and how his version differed from his TV contemporaries like the Adam West-starred Batman.

"I think it would have been huge fun. It would have been a kick in the pants to have the old guy there," Hammond said in regard to wanting to be part of the crossover that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are rumored to possibly be doing with current Spider-man actor Tom Holland. "I was really hoping I would be approached but unfortunately, that didn't happen."

Hammond noted how he felt life imitated art with the current MCU films. "Tom Holland's version is the closest to what we were doing; trying to make him very much a real guy, someone who you could actually forget he had these powers and get caught up in Peter's story," he explained. "That was what we were going for." Personally, I think the actor still has a chance as Phil Lord and Chris Miller don't shy away from addressing previous and alternate incarnations of the character in their animated Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and likely do the same in their upcoming 2022 sequel.

Despite The Amazing Spider-Man only lasting 13 episodes on CBS, Hammond remains grateful for what was trying to be done. "At first, I was reluctant because the only show that had ever been on TV like that was 'Batman,'" he said. "And I was not interested in being in something like that. It had its own value, but that was not really for me, the 'Pow,' 'Zoom' stuff. And [the producers] said, 'We want this guy to be a real guy. We want viewers to get involved in his life, his story.' And I thought, 'What a challenge. Take a sort of fanciful character and convince the viewers he is real, make them forget that essentially what they are watching is a comic book character.' That was something I wanted to do, and they offered me the job."

For more on Hammond's experience on the series, why it failed, discussions on collaborating with The Incredible Hulk star Bill Bixby on a crossover, why creator Stan Lee didn't care for his series, and his role in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, check out the full interview at THR.

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