Sony Shattered Spider-Man Star Tobey Maguire’s Dreams Involving Anime Robotech

Tobey Maguire has had several iconic roles. It is an understatement to say that the Spider-Man alum is anything less than one of geekdom’s greatest, right up there with James Earl Jones and Hayo Miyazaki. Needless to say, it comes as no surprise that the Great Gatsby star has a keen interest in anime, so much so that his production company, Maguire Entertainment, acquired the rights to one of his favorite IPs.

Maguire has gone on record hailing Robotech to be one of his favorite anime of all time. The film rights for the same were acquired by Maguire’s production house to produce a live-action adaptation of the same. The production was in the process of putting together a team, with producers and writers signed on.

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Tobey Maguire wanted to play the lead in the adaptation

Robotech is a military science fiction franchise that was created by Harmony Gold by stitching together three Japanese anime properties that have the same visual design. Maguire’s company brought the rights to the series (the American dubbed and stitched anime, not the original three Japanese anime) and began development with him set to play the protagonist.

While the film had producers and writers in place to begin production, the effort was altogether fruitless. While the acquisition of rights and the beginning of pre-production happened around 2007, there was no sign of any concrete movement by 2015. Sony Entertainment, with whom Maquire had produced the Spider-Man movie,  brought the rights to the franchise in the same year, trashing the No Way Home alum’s dreams of starring in the iconic franchise.

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Sony had big plans for the franchise

Upon acquiring the rights to the franchise, Sony Pictures Entertainment made some quick decisions, onboarding producer Mark Canton (300, dir. Zack Snyder) and Gianni Nunnari, while also getting scriptwriter Michael Gordon (300) to pen the screenplay. With regards to the project, Canton had to say:

“I’m thrilled to be back in business with Sony Pictures and Gianni and I look forward to working with the studio on this global franchise-driven opportunity,” 

However, the film changed hands multiple times. At one point, James Wan was part of the production and so was Andy Muschetti (who took over when Wan moved on to direct the first Aquaman movie for the DCEU). As of 2022, the film is still in development with Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas at the helm. Iron Man scriptwriters Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are taking a crack at the script.

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