Unreality Companion: Who Should Be Marvel's Spider-Man?

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

The big Marvel news that's been on everybody's mind lately - other than its rebooted universe - is who will end up playing Spider-Man in the MCU.  While some bemoan yet another Spider-Man to have to get used to, I couldn't be happier that Spidey is back where he belongs.  And since I've already covered what I want to see in the MCU's take on the character, I thought that it would behoove me to go over the increasingly narrowed field of acting candidates.

Ellar Coltrane - Let's be clear with something right off the bat.  Ellar Coltrane is not, nor has he ever been, a candidate for Peter Parker.  He lacks the relatively high profile of most of the "real" candidates.  He's never been a teen sensation, never headed up a TV series with an adoring adolescent following and hasn't been involved with anything that would bring new fans into the series.  It's basically the same reason why Ethan Hawke was passed over for the role of Doctor Strange.

That being said, he's always been my favorite choice for the role.  While he's only been involved in a single project - Richard Linklater's Boyhood - it's a doozey of a film to add to your resume.  It's a film that by all rights should have earned the nineteen-year-old an Oscar nomination.  Filmed intermittently over the course of twelve years, Coltrane didn't give just one outstanding performance, but twelve of them, every one of them carrying the weight of the film.

Asa Butterfield - Of all of the actual candidates for the role of Spider-Man, Asa Butterfield was by far my favorite.  He perfectly fit the kind of Spider-Man that  Marvel wanted: a young, early high-school dork who looks like he's been on the wrong side of a schoolyard beating more than a few times in his life.

The thing is, though, that he's not just a scruffy-looking nerd under a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.  He's actually an accomplished actor in his own right.  He got my attention as one of the best actors of his generation when he headlined as the title character in Hugo, which he subsequently confirmed by his work in Ender's Game.  He's held his own against Harrison Ford, Christopher Lee and Ben Kingsley (twice!) and has already worked with the likes of Martin Scorsese.

Tom Holland - One of the candidates still in the running for the role of Spider-Man is Tom Holland.  Although he lacks the raw talent of Coltrane and the higher profile of Butterfield, Holland is none-the-less a talented young actor who would doubtless prove to be a solid choice for the role.

Holland is best known for his work in The Impossible - an insipidly average disaster drama about the 2004 Tsunami that devastated Thailand.  But while the movie was a bit less than well-enough, Holland himself did an exceptional job as a young boy trying to reunite with his family, and that's considering that he had to act against A-list talent like Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.  He - or, rather, his voice - also featured in last year's astoundingly good Locke, where he played Tom Hardy's son.

Charlie Rowe - I don't have much to say about this last candidate because I really haven't seen anything that he's worked in at this point.  Walking with Dinosaurs was hardly a showcase for anybody's talent, even if I can say that he wasn't bad in that.

He has the lowest profile of any of the Spider-Man potentials, having mostly been involved in TV and a few unexceptional movies.  So while he does have the look of the character (that much I can tell), it's hard to say if he'd be any good in the role or not.  Suffice it to say, through no real fault of his own, he's my least favorite choice for the role and the fact that he's one of the two finalists makes me extremely nervous.

Of the four already mentioned, I still have to side with Coltrane as my favorite.  The only real downside to him is that he's only had the one role (even if he took it on twelve different times, from twelve different stages in the boy's life), that and he's a bit older than what Marvel said that they were looking for (even if he's still considerably younger than either of the previous cinematic Spider-Men).

Butterfield is probably the safest choice.  He's proven himself to be a great actor in a wide number of roles, the most recent of which have been a bit more action-heavy.  He has the look of a really young Spider-Man who could grow naturally into the role as the character ages with him.  Why they ever decided to pass him over for the job I'll never know.

Of the two finalists, however, I'd have to go with Tom Holland.  He's simply a far more proven actor with a far higher profile to work with than Charlie Rowe.  He's an exceptionally talented young actor who very much looks the part of a young Parker.

So who would you like to see as Marvel's Spider-Man?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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