The 'Iron Man' star helped Sony and Marvel decide the actor who would portray a young web-crawler for the new 'Spider-Man' movie by testing the chemistry between him and the candidates.
- Jun 24, 2015
AceShowbiz - While most casting process involves directors to choose the star for their movies, that didn't happen in the search of a young Spider-Man for an untitled new Spider-Man movie. They were producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige who chose the star to play a young Spider-Man with the help of Robert Downey Jr..
After seeing more than 1500 actors, Marvel and Sony had narrowed down the shorlist of the potential lead actors to six, including Tom Holland, Asa Butterfield, Judah Lewis, Matthew Lintz, Charlie Plummer and Charlie Rowe. In testing the six candidates, Marvel and Sony asked Downey Jr., who's best known for his role as Iron Man, to participate because they wanted to test the chemistry between the young candidates and the elder Marvel hero. They considered it necessary because the young Peter Parker and Tony Stark/Iron Man would apparently share scenes in "Captain America: Civil War", before the web-crawler gets his solo trilogy. "Civil War" is the film where the new Spidey will make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut.
After the screen test, Holland and Rowe were chosen as the most likely candidates to play the role. However, Marvel and Sony encountered difficulties to choose one of them to become the new Spidey. They decided to do a second screen test to help them make their final decision. In the second screen test, they asked another Marvel hero star, Chris Evans, to be involved in the process. Sources say that Holland was the only actor who tested separately with Downey and Evans before he finally got the deal to play the web-slinger.
"Sony, Marvel, Kevin and I all knew that for Peter Parker, we had to find a vibrant, talented young actor capable of embodying one of the most well-known characters in the world," Pascal said of choosing Holland. "With Tom, we've found the perfect actor to bring Spider-Man's story into the Marvel Cinematic Universe," the producer added in a statement.
