After being briefly introduced in “Captain America: Civil War”, Tom Holland returned as Spider-Man in “Spider-Man: Homecoming”. But did you know that French actor Pierre Niney could have been the new face of Peter Parker?
Spider-Man: Homecoming – the beginning of a new trilogy
After Tobey Maguire in the early 2000s and Andrew Garfield in the early 2010s, Tom Holland is the third comedian to camp Spider-Man in the cinema. He was hired in 2016 to make a short appearance in Captain America: Civil War. Subsequently, he appeared in the three parts of his own trilogy, initiated by Spider-Man: Homecomingand in the last two Avengers. If Tom Holland plays a solid Peter Parker, he was chosen among many contenders for the role. Among them were, in particular, Frenchman Pierre Niney.
Pierre Niney as Spider-Man?
A few years ago, before Tom Holland became the new face of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the French actor Pierre Niney had the opportunity to pass the castings for Captain America: Civil War. He was indeed offered to pass a few tests for the role of Peter Parker. This was revealed by the actor at the microphone of our colleagues fromAlloCine during the promotion of The Odyssey in 2016:
My American agent had offered me to try out when they were doing the reboot. Spider-Man is my whole childhood, my whole teenage years, I’m crazy about Spider-Man, and yet I said no.
So, despite this opportunity, Pierre Niney refused to appear at the casting.
The comedian then advanced that the reason for his refusal concerned the long-term contracts that Marvel Studios imposes on its comedians. Pierre Niney did not want lock himself in the role of Peter Parker for many years. And, as he pointed out, he probably wouldn’t have been caught:
It was just testing. I would never have been caught. But I said no because my agent added, “If you get caught, you sign for five movies. That means eight years of your minimum life and you can be in any Marvel franchise. They can call you and put you in any movie”. So I said to myself that I was still going to do some theater and films in France, that’s cool. Now these films are so much commercial stuff that you’re stuck for a long time. At the same time, it would make me dream, one day, of working on a big American film to see what this machine is from the inside, and at the same time we are very well off in France, we have very varied films , a very beautiful cinematographic landscape.
If Pierre Niney had agreed to go to the casting, he would have found himself in competition with many young American actors like Dylan O’Brien, Daniel Radcliffe, Donald Glover (who eventually picked up another role in Spider-Man: Homecoming), or even Timothée Chalamet.
If Pierre Niney refused to take his chance to join the MCU, another French actress jumped at the chance. This is the young Pom Klementieff, who has been the face of Mantis since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. As for Pierre Niney, he will have another opportunity to embody a superhero on screen since he is preparing a funny project with McFly and Carlito titled Leaf Man.
