Trivia

Before Andrew Garfield was announced for the lead part, Taylor Lautner, Josh Hutcherson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Logan Lerman, Robert Pattinson, Jamie Bell, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Alden Ehrenreich, Zac Efron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Xavier Samuel, Jim Sturgess, Liam Aiken and Anton Yelchin were also considered to play the lead role.

Andrew Garfield was announced for the lead role in early July 2010.

Ashley Greene, Mia Wasikowska, Scout Taylor-Compton Teresa Palmer, Amber Heard, Dianna Agron, Brooklyn Decker, Imogen Poots, Lindsay Lohan, Emma Roberts, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Anna Kendrick, Ophelia Lovibond, Sara Paxton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Georgina Haig, Hilary Duff and Dominique McElligott were considered for the role of Gwen Stacy, but were beaten out by Emma Stone.

This marks the second time that Martin Sheen and Cliff Robertson have shared a part. They previously played John F. Kennedy in Kennedy and PT 109, respectively.

All four Spider-Man films have filmed on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot. Ironically symbolic of the series itself, portions of the back lot burned down on June 1, 2008, meaning that first three used the old back lot while this reboot uses the new back lot.

The final film produced by Laura Ziskin. She died June 12, 2011.

When first wearing the Spider-Man costume Andrew Garfield admitted to shedding tears.

To prepare for his role as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield studied the movements of spiders and tried to incorporate them as much as he could: "Parker is a boy/spider in terms of how he moves, and not just in the suit."

According to costume designer Kym Barrett, the Spider-Man costume was specially designed to resemble an acrobat costume: "We wanted a design that would make the body longer and more lithe, someone incredibly agile; the legs of the spider-symbol on the chest were used to emphasize that."

It was a creative decision by the filmmakers to have most of the stunts performed practically on rigs by actors/stuntmen, rather than extensively use CGI animation. Marc Webb explained they wanted to make the film more physical and thus more realistic. While filming in New York the crew built a whole rig hundreds of feet long over Riverside Drive in Harlem, and Andy Armstrong built a car rig with a series of wires to help with VFX which required an incredible wealth of acrobatics

EASTER EGG: When Peter first enters Gwen's room, there are several books stacked just inside the window through which Peter enters. The book at the top of the stack is the novel "Seabiscuit". Tobey Maguire, who portrayed Peter/Spider-Man in the original trilogy, also played the lead character in the film adaptation, Seabiscuit.

The pop culturally misquoted line by Ben Parker "With great power comes great responsibility", prominent in the Sam Raimi movies, is not once uttered in this film. This is actually more in keeping with the comics, as it was merely a text box that said "With great power, there must also come great responsibility" in Amazing Fantasy #15. However, through the years, the line has been erroneously attributed to Ben, even by Peter himself, so much so that it is taken as true in comics, cartoons and movies. The voice-mail left by Ben alludes to this, but never directly quotes it.

Denis Leary's first live action film appearance in ten years.

Originally conceived as "Spider-Man 4," a direct sequel to the original film trilogy, Sony Pictures had actually begun pre-production before opting to make this film as a reboot instead. Sony re-negotiated contracts with director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (each receiving a reported $30 million) for a three picture deal with the intention of starting a new trilogy in the series. Scripts were commissioned from writers James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, David Koepp and Gary Ross, with each writer earning upwards of $1 million or more for their services. The story would have introduced the Vulture as a new villain: Raimi initially approached Ben Kingsley for the role before casting John Malkovich. Malkovitch was actually slated to play Norman Osbourne in the original film series, but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. In addition to the Vulture, the film would also introduce the villainess Felicia Hardy, with Anne Hathaway set to play the character. In the initial story, Hardy would become her comic book alter-ego Black Cat, though later script rewrites recreated Hardy as an original character called Vulturess (after her departure, Hathaway would take on a similar role in The Dark Knight Rises). Raimi also expressed interest in having Dylan Baker return as Dr. Curt Connors, who would transform into the villain The Lizard, though Executive Producer Avi Arad vetoed this idea. With development costs skyrocketing in excess of $100 million, Raimi unhappy with repeated versions of the script, and tensions rising between Raimi, Maguire and the studio, Sony opted to cancel the film and reboot the series instead. Raimi, for his part, has said it was for the best, as the director had been unhappy with Spider-Man 3 citing studio interference, and "hated" the storyline concocted for the proposed fourth film.

Andrew Garfield requested that the song "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory be played when filming the otherwise silent scene in which Peter goes into the web harvesting room with the spiders.

Originally there was suppose to be two other villains with The Lizard in the film Proto-Goblin, and Big Wheel (both old comic book villains). But they were both cut (Big Wheel was just an idea before being cut) because the movie would have been too long, there would have been too many origins, and there would have been too many fight scenes. Irrfan Khan plays Dr. Rajit Ratha, the character who would have been the Proto-Goblin.

The first of two movies in 2012 to feature a character performed by Irrfan Khan directly referring to another character named Richard Parker. In this movie, Khan's character, Dr. Rajit Ratha, references Peter Parker's father, Richard, to Dr. Curt Connors. The second movie is The Life of Pi, in which Khan portrays adult Pi. The name of the tiger Pi shared a boat with was Richard Parker, and he references said tiger by name throughout the movie.

Stan Lee:  The man in the library unaware of the events going on behind him.

Marc Webb describes the theme of the movie as "the missing piece within all of us: Peter has no parents, and he fills that void with Spider-Man. Curt is not as strong as Spider-Man on the inside, but he wants to get back his arm and fill that void, and essentially he becomes a big bully."

The first live-action Spider-Man motion picture where the villain goes to jail for his crimes.