Andrew Garfield No Way Home leak confirmed real by professional VFX artists

Andrew Garfield is almost certainly in Spider-Man: No Way Home. From script leaks to behind-the-scenes set photos, we're 99.9% certain that the actor is returning as Peter Parker. On the other hand, this could be the world's greatest ruse.

With that said, the internet's most known VFX artists have come out to verify the recent video leak of Garfield as Spider-Man. In a new video by Corridor Digital, the clip was picked apart and its legitimacy was verified.

Is the Andrew Garfield No Way Home video a deepfake?

The ongoing theory regarding the video of Andrew Garfield on set is that its deepfake. That's not true. From our own — failed — attempts at deepfake technology, that's just out of the question. This theory comes from two places: 1) Garfield declaring the footage is “photoshopped” and, 2) a popular video claiming to have created the video.

That second point comes from a video by Alex Cerrato titled “How I trolled the entire Internet”. The short, obviously-snide clip attempted to trick people into believing Cerrato made the video. It worked! Many believed the video. However, it was merely a ruse.

Cerrato’s video shows his fake “deepfake process”. Using deepfake software, the YouTube video shows him replacing Andrew Garfield's face with, well, Andrew Garfield... which doesn't make sense. Look at the two images below: one is Cerrato’s, the other is from a failed deepfake where I tried to replace Henry Cavill’s Superman with the far cuter Brandon Routh.

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It’s too perfect

The VFX artists at Corridor Digital explain another reason why it can't be a deepfake. It's just two perfect. Essentially, as Deepfake collates facial information from thousands of frames, imperfections will always appear.

Corridor compares the Garfield clip against the infamous Tom Cruise deepfakes. In the image below, the deepfaked Cruise has two separate light sources between both eyes. Additionally, these light sources aren't replicated around the rest of the face.  This type of conflicting information is exactly why the Andrew Garfield can't be fake.

In comparison, the Spider-Man clip is flawless. Garfield’s hair is perfect and the light sources in his eyes match the lighting around his face. As Corridor Digital’s Niko puts it: “Deepfakes are not magic. They're really not that crazy. They require a bunch of artistry to make them look real.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home releases in cinemas on December 17^th, 2021.

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