Joe Jonas recently revealed that he had auditioned for the lead role of Spider-Man in Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man back in 2010. He went on to detail how harshly it knocked his spirit when he was unsuccessful after losing the role to Andrew Garfield.
We’ve heard of many young male actors vying for the role over the years from Leonardo DiCaprio to Asa Butterfield there’s been many “what could have beens”. Who knows maybe someday one of these actors could play an older version of Spider-Man?
Most recently we saw Tom Holland step up to the plate as the MCU’s first ever Spider-Man after Marvel made their ground-breaking deal with Sony to share the character (amongst others).
But just like those that came before him the competition was far from slim. Actors such as Timothée Chalamet (who first rose to fame after his role in Call Me by Your Name (2017)) and Matt Lintz (Ms Marvel) have been amongst those mentioned as battling it out on Marvel’s shortlist for the role at the time.
Recently, Joe Jonas (of Jonas Brothers fame) has come out and revealed that he was once among those in the running for the role back in 2010.
Joe Jonas Vs Andrew Garfield for Spider-Man?
In a recent interview with Variety, Joe Jonas detailed his experience battling it out for the role of one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, Spider-Man.
As we all know, this role was eventually won by Andrew Garfield and whatever your opinion is on the Amazing Spider-Man franchise I think we can all agree that he was a brilliant choice. Jonas said that even though “in the moment, you’re destroyed or you’re defeated” that he believed in their choice stating, “But you realize this person was brilliant.” and that “Obviously, he was the right one”.
He also said that despite feeling so bad about losing the role he was still “excited” by the whole process:
“I can name probably a couple. In the moment, you’re destroyed or you’re defeated. But you realize this person was brilliant. I remember years ago I was up for Spider-Man and I was so, so excited and it was the year Andrew Garfield got it. Obviously, he was the right one. But I remember that was a big thing at the time, going back for callbacks and the director used to be a music video director. So I was like, “I got an in here.” But you know what? I love the process of auditioning and putting yourself out there and having to prove yourself.” – Joe Jonas
When asked if he’d ever got far enough to step into that famous black and blue costume he said “No, but I’m sure I had one that I would try on occasionally back in the day”.
In a previous interview with Backstage early this year, we were treated to an insight into how serious Garfield took the role when preparing for it. He also revealed what his winning strategy was. He said he treated Peter Parker like it was Shakespeare’s Hamlet if it were directed by Martin Scorsese.
“When I first played Peter Parker when I was in my 20s, I did treat it like Hamlet. It was Scorsese’s Hamlet!”
He also made it clear that he approached the role and Peter Parker’s situation with all the seriousness a real person in his position would. Being an orphan and dealing with the grief of losing his parents was something he wanted to sincerely reflect in his portrayal.
“That’s how I was approaching it. Thinking,] I’ve lost my parents; I’m an orphan. If you’re going to really step into that in a real way, that’s heavy, psychological, emotional stuff. For me, there are lots of young boys that are going to be watching this. I wanted to offer something that had soul; I wanted to offer something that felt real and relatable and complicated. Fun and joyful as well, but also I wanted to honor what it is to be an orphaned teenager. I wanted to really dive into that and [think about] what it would do to the heart of a person and their trust for people.” – Andrew Garfield
Is it too late for Joe Jonas to join the MCU?
It’s obviously too late for him to play Spider-Man in the MCU (unless he’s from an alternate universe) since we already have our Spider-Man but could he play someone else? That’s still a rich catalogue of characters we’ve yet to see appear. This includes all of the recently reacquired X-Men characters, not to mention all the other characters that we’re previously owned by Fox.
Recently, we’ve seen that Marvel are moving towards their more horror-centric characters. We’ve had the Werewolf by Night special on Disney+, the introduction of dark magic, the announcement of the upcoming Blade movie and much more going on in that area of the MCU. Maybe we could see him appear in something related to these properties? Would you like to see Joe Jonas in the MCU?
