These Two Guys Are the Leading Contenders to Play Spider-Man

It’s been a big week for Spider-Man fans with the news that the webcrawling hero will finally, finally (finally) be making his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel and Sony are clearly not interested in wasting any time though, and now that Andrew Garfield’s departure from the series is all but certain, it seems that casting process has already begun.

I would like to apply, where do I send my resume?

While I’m sure we’d all love to be the new Spider-Man, Marvel and Sony seem to be going for a very specific look and age-range. In particular, they want a Peter Parker, so it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing Don Glover as Miles Morales (as awesome as that would be); and additionally, they want him to be high-school age, so probably no actors any older than their mid-20s.

Sigh… born too early to explore space, and too late to be Spider-Man…

I feel your pain buddy.

So who are these children who stole my dream job?

Well, keep in mind that this is some very early casting exploration. Sony and Marvel still have quite a bit of time to get their ducks in a row.

That being said, they apparently have two leading contenders right now.

The first is 23-year old Dylan O’Brien. You might remember him from The Maze Runner and Teen Wolf, if you’re into that sort of thing.

The other is the also-23-year old Logan Lerman, star of the Percy Jackson series.

So who do we like better?

Before we get into that, one more disclaimer. According to Variety, these are just two of the actors from among a likely-pretty-extensive list of candidates. While Lerman and O’Brien might be the studio’s current favorites, none of the actors on the shortlist have been approached yet, so it’s all really up in the air at the moment.

That being said, both of the frontrunners seem very adequate. Honestly, probably too adequate if that makes any sense. Both have been very successful with young adult audiences, but neither of them stand out to me in any way that other than, “yeah, I could see them as a Spider-Man.”

After two sets of these movies, I think a lot of us want something a little fresher, a little more bold. Even if Marvel/Sony won’t go the Miles Morales route, I still think there a lot more interesting options out there.

Heck, I think O’Brien’s Maze Runner co-star Thomas Brodie-Sangster (you’d probably know him better as Jojen in Game of Thrones) would be a much more intriguing choice in my opinion.

After all, this is an actor who’s going to need to go toe-to-toe with guys like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. If he can’t bring something unique to those scenes, we’re in store for a pretty underwhelming introduction to the character.