Asa Butterfield Says Losing to Tom Holland for MCU's Spider-Man Role Was 'Tough'

Ever since it was revealed in 2015 that Marvel Studios and Sony had struck a deal to have Spider-Man integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans were left wondering who would end up playing the teenage superhero. After months of speculation, a shortlist was revealed with Asa Butterfield being one of the top contenders for the role next to Tom Holland.

However, in a sudden upset, he was no longer up for the role , which left it between Charlie Plummer, Matthew Lintz, and Tom Holland, the latter of whom took the role . Years later, in an interview with Collider, Butterfield isn't bitter at all about the loss of this role.

NEWS

In an interview on Collider's show, Collider Connected , Collider interviewed Asa Butterfield about his audition for Spider-Man and if he felt that it was a bummer losing out on the role of a lifetime:

“Every so often there’s a part [that you really want] and it’s a script you love, and you kind of put your heart and soul into it, and you don’t get it. And it is tough and it is shit, but I often find that something even better comes out of it at the end. And so in the case of Spider-Man, I did Sex Ed, because I wouldn’t have been able to do both of those at the same time.”

Butterfield expanded on his answer and speculated as to why he didn't get the role, comparing how he would have portrayed that Tom Holland ultimately played. Butterfield even complimented Holland's take on the role:

“I think as an actor and going out for roles, there’s only so much you can do and everyone’s gonna have a different take on a part and look at a character in different ways, have a different sort of performance, and you kind of have to stick with what you think. And if that isn’t necessary in line with what the director and the producers want, then it’s like, there’s nothing you can do about that. You might just not be the right person, and that’s out of your hands. And that’s something I’ve learned, something that I think is great to help me kind of get over it. Because Tom did amazing things with Peter and he had an entirely different portrayal of him and I think it’s worked so well in the universe and in that part, and I don’t think I could do it. So I think all things work out in the end.”

WHAT THIS MEANS

Considering Butterfield's own explanation for why he wasn't considered for the part of Peter Parker, it's interesting to imagine how he would have played the webcrawler. From his comments, Tom Holland played a very different kind of Spider-Man than what he would have played.

Also, just because he missed out on playing Peter Parker doesn't mean that he won't ever join the MCU eventually. Even one of the directors for his show , Sex Education , has joined as the director of all the Loki episodes. So, it's likely only a matter of time until he joins this enormous franchise, even if it isn't in a starring role.