Spider-Man Actor Shortlist Features Jamie Bell, Andrew Garfield, Frank Dillane, Josh Hutcherson And Alden Ehrenreich

Since Sony announced a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, the big question has been: who will play Peter Parker and Spider-Man? Quite a few names have come up, but Sony has denied almost all, and evaded the issue as much as possible. Now a new shortlist has been uncovered, and it features a couple expected names, and a few surprising ones.

THR has the list, and says that director Marc Webb has been quietly meeting with actors over the past couple months. (No surprise there; of course he has.) The trade says that no screen tests have been done on any of these actors.

The list includes (l-r in the image above): Jamie Bell; Andrew Garfield; Alden Ehrenreich; Frank Dillane; and Josh Hutcherson. I'd call Garfield and Hutcherson the expected names, while Bell seems too old, and Ehrenreich is a bit surprising, but possibly the best choice. IESB called Dillane and Hutcherson previously.

Jamie Bell and Andrew Garfield are the oldest of the bunch, but are both solid actors. Bell is committed to Tintin, which may or may not be an issue for Sony.

I'd love to see Garfield get the part. He looks like a good Peter Parker, and as evidenced by his turns in Boy A and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he could nail it.

Josh Hutcherson is also a veteran, having been in films like Zathura and Journey to the Center of the Earth. He's also in the upcoming Red Dawn, and committed to the Journey sequel.

Alden Ehrenreich's big role so far has been in the under-seen Tetro. He comes with the blessing of not only Francis Ford Coppola, but Steven Spielberg, who discovered the young actor. Combined with the fact that he's a relative unknown, that could be a good thing. Photographed certain ways he also looks a bit like classic images of Peter Parker, which would be a good asset. He's the other great pick here.

Dillane is another newcomer, with his big credit so far being a gig playing the young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He was fine there, but I don't have any real bead on him. Ehrenreich seems like a better pick.

Sony isn't commenting on this at all at this point, and seems to be letting Webb take his time picking the right actor before the film goes into production later this year.

Sound off — do any of these actors seem like the prime Peter Parker?