Remember when Warner Bros. needed a Green Lantern and they decided that one of Earth’s three most qualified people for the job was freaking Justin Timberlake? Or that time Marvel nearly cast Jim Halpert as Captain America? Well, we have some incredible news: The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit has obtained director Marc Webb’s list of five mostly unknown contenders to play Peter Parker in his upcoming Spider-Man reboot, and for maybe the first time in superhero history, all names under consideration are completely non-terrible.
They are:
• Jamie Bell, 24, the British actor who played the lead in Billy Elliot, helped defeat the Nazis in Defiance, and will star in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (which comes out next year and will probably make him hugely famous despite its title).
Josh Hutcherson, 17, who was in Journey to the Center of the Earth and the upcoming Red Dawn remake, yes. But he’s also in presumed awards-season contender The Kids Are All Right.
• Frank Dillane, 19, another Brit. He was the kid who scared the hell out of you in last year’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as young Voldemort.
• Andrew Garfield, 27, another Brit. He’s the oldest actor vying for the part and the star of Boy A, Lions for Lambs, and Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Josh Hutcherson, 17, who was in Journey to the Center of the Earth and the upcoming Red Dawn remake, yes. But he’s also in presumed awards-season contender The Kids Are All Right.
For practicality’s sake, we’d imagine Webb would probably go with one of the younger actors here (though Tobey Maguire was 27 when he first played Spider-Man in 2002). But anybody on this list seems totally palatable to us. Kit says no screen tests have yet happened, and Webb and the studio are still on the lookout for other possible candidates, but they seem to know what they’re doing, so we’re happy to let them cast this part without our interference. We’ll save our complaining for when they inevitably hire Taylor Lautner.
Who would you cast?
Meet the men who could play Spider-Man [Heat Vision/HR]