4 Actors Who Almost Played Spider-Man Before Tom Holland, & #1 Wound Up in the MCU Anyway

One of Marvel’s most beloved and popular characters is Spider-Man, and when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started taking shape, there was a lot of curiosity about who would take on the role after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Today, Tom Holland is pretty much a phenomenon for an entire generation, widely praised and admired as the perfect Peter Parker. However, it took quite a while before he was even considered for the part, since the role carries a lot of weight and not just anyone could fill those shoes. After all, with great power comes great responsibility. So, there was fierce competition between several names, some of whom are pretty well-known today, and others were still getting their careers off the ground.

The casting process was long and challenging enough to produce quite a few unexpected candidates, but who were the most interesting actors who came close to landing the role before Holland eventually got it?

4) Timothée Chalamet

Have you ever stopped to imagine Timothée Chalamet as Peter Parker? Some people think he would’ve been better as Harry Osborne, but at one point, the actor wanted to be the MCU’s Spider-Man. Not many people know about this, but he has talked about it before, and it’s still a pretty big surprise since he has built a huge reputation for himself in Hollywood over the years with movies like Call Me by Your Name, Wonka, Little Women, and the Dune franchise. But how far did he actually make it in the casting process? According to Chalamet, he auditioned for the role twice and walked out of the second audition so convinced that he had blown it that he even called his agent, Brian Swardstrom, asking for another shot.

Did he get any further after that? Unfortunately, no, so much so that he didn’t even make it close to the final round of auditions. Apparently, Swardstrom put a stop to it by telling him the story of Sean Young, who wanted to play Catwoman in Batman Returns so badly that she showed up at the studio dressed as the character in an attempt to convince Tim Burton — an approach that, according to the anecdote told by Chalamet’s agent, ended up freaking out the people in charge of casting. So, with that in mind, the actor gave up on trying to show up for a third audition.

3) Matt Lintz

If you’re wondering who managed to make it into the MCU even after missing out on the role of the new Spider-Man, that would be Matt Lintz. The actor entered the casting process when he was just 14 years old (much younger than Holland), and ended up being one of the few actors who were chosen for the final screen tests. Sadly, he didn’t make it much further, but his story with Marvel didn’t end there, as years later, he was cast as Bruno Carrelli in Ms. Marvel, which was a second chance to be part of the MCU. In the series, he’s Kamala Khan’s best friend and ally, which is a pretty important role in the story.

But Lintz doesn’t talk about losing the role as a major disappointment; he seems genuinely happy with the way things turned out and had nothing but praise for Holland. According to him, the Spider-Man star even stopped by one of the Ms. Marvel sets while filming Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the two got to talk for a bit. Lintz said that he really admires Holland both as a person and as a professional, and described their interaction as “it seems like life has come full circle.”

2) Asa Butterfield

Asa Butterfield has had a certain reputation in the industry since he was very young, when she appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (although he had already done some great work before that). And during the audition process for Spider-Man: Homecoming, he probably seemed like a pretty obvious choice: the fame, the right age, and the ability to carry an entire prestige movie as the lead. So, when Marvel and Sony started looking for the new Peter, Butterfield quickly became one of the leading candidates and made it to the final stage. It’s not entirely clear how far he actually got in the process, but he talked about the possibility of almost becoming the hero in 2020 and was honest about being disappointed.

According to the actor, when there’s a role you really want, you love the script, and you put your “heart and soul” into the audition, losing out is tough. However, Butterfield also said he usually realizes afterward that something different and even better can come out of rejection — and, in the case of Spider-Man, that ended up leading him to the iconic Sex Education, a show he wouldn’t have been able to do if he had joined the MCU. Other than that, the actor had plenty of praise for Holland as well, saying his fellow actor did incredible things with Peter and created a very different take on the character than the one he would have done.

1) Charlie Rowe

Here you have an actor who made it all the way to the final round of the competition and, for a while, was literally competing with Holland for the role. Charlie Rowe was one of the names chosen for the screen tests after Marvel and Sony narrowed down a search that involved more than 2,500 candidates, and he ended up coming back for additional tests when the competition came down to just the two of them. They both then tried again with Robert Downey Jr., who needed to work as Tony Stark alongside the new Peter. A few weeks later, they had to test them in a scene with Chris Evans as Captain America as well (although some reports only mention Holland in this case). Nothing has been officially confirmed about who the other finalist was, but dozens of sources have reported that it was indeed Rowe.

It wasn’t meant to be, though. By the end of it all, the actor wasn’t able to deliver exactly what they were looking for in the character. However, he later made a post on social media admitting that he would’ve made a good Peter while also congratulating Holland on landing the role. Rowe isn’t exactly a household name, but he already had a few established projects under his belt before auditioning to become the new Spider-Man, including The Golden Compass, the miniseries Neverland, and Red Band Society.