The Marvel Actor Who Almost Became The MCU's Spider-Man Instead Of Tom Holland

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been enduring a turbulent time of late. Marvel Studios hed Kevin Feige has desperately been trying to get things back on track after a series of middling streaming shows and superhero movie over-saturation caused general audiences to tire of the once mighty blockbuster franchise. But if the last couple years have proved anything, it's that Marvel's big event movies can still draw crowds. Everybody showed up for the box office behemoth that was "Deadpool & Wolverine," but even that movie and its $1.3 billion worldwide gross couldn't match the $1.9 billion racked up by "Spider-Man: No Way Home" back in 2021/22.

Granted, in the latter case, fans were eager to see the return of former Spider-Men Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, alongside the wide array of former Spidey villains. But without Tom Holland having led two previous Spider-Man movies and showing up in a number of team-up films, the movie likely wouldn't have had the remarkable appeal it did. With "No Way Home," Holland demonstrated his dramatic abilities to great effect, proving that he's more than worthy of being given a straight up "Spider-Man" movie and not merely acting as a way to further the grander MCU narrative.

That sets things up nicely for the highly-anticipated "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," which takes its name from one of the most infamous Marvel storylines ever. Given the way "No Way Home" wrapped up, the upcoming wallcrawler entry should be a Spider-Man-focused film that really gives Holland a chance to shine on his own merits — something fans of the character have been waiting for ever since 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming." In an alternate timeline, however, none of this would have happened. Instead, another Brit could have been webslinging his way through the MCU: "Stranger Things" season 4 star Joseph Quinn.

Joseph Quinn broke through playing Eddie Munson in the fourth season of "Stranger Things" back in 2022. After having starred in some BBC dramas, Quinn finally landed what was his first big American role, and ever since Eddie delivered his final heartbreaking line in "Stranger Things," his career has taken off. Quinn's breakout character was never going to get a happy ending in the show, but the actor himself is currently living the dream.

Quinn has appeared in "A Quiet Place: Day One," "Gladiator II," and Alex Garland's disturbing, riveting war movie "Warfare." Now, he's set to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in "Fantastic Four: First Steps," capping off a remarkable trajectory that has seen Quinn ascend to superstar status in just a few short years. While playing a Marvel character might not seem like the biggest dramatic challenge of Quinn's career, portraying Johnny Storm should provide the young star with a different type of challenge. The character has previously been played by both Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan in Fox's two attempts at establishing an on-screen "Fantastic Four" franchise. Now, Quinn will have to find a new way of portraying the Human Torch in a film that arguably could decide the fate of the MCU moving forward

But it seems the British star's career very nearly looked a lot different. In fact, he came close to making his MCU debut much earlier, as Quinn previously auditioned to play Spider-Man in the Marvel Studios Spidey movies.

In an interview with Buzzfeed, Joseph Quinn briefly spoke about his audition to play Spidey in the MCU. "I was up for 'Spider-Man.' Still waiting to hear," he joked. Back in the mid-2010s Tom Holland won the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man before making his debut as the character in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War." In order to land the role, Holland had to audition an incredible eight times in the course of five months, ultimately impressing Sony/Marvel execs during his movement test and becoming the MCU's Spider-Man.

Though Quinn hasn't revealed many details about his own experience auditioning for the coveted role, it seems unlikely his experience was as intense as Holland's. Thousands of actors were reportedly in the running but in April 2015, The Wrap reported that Sony had whittled down its shortlist of actors to Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet, and Liam James, "among others." Whether Quinn was on this shortlist remains unclear, but his name wasn't mentioned in The Wrap piece.

Now, as we await the third big screen "Fantastic Four" movie, Quinn and Holland look as though they could easily come face to face in future MCU movies, which would be a neat little moment for the two actors given Quinn's Spidey audition. But first, "Fantastic Four: First Steps" has to do well enough at the box office, and it's not entirely clear how things will turn out in that respect. Still, Quinn will always be able to say that he eventually did make it into the MCU even though he never heard back about that Spidey role.