Denis Leary to Play George Stacy in SPIDER-MAN Reboot

Yes, director Marc Webb’s reboot of Spider-Man just got a little angrier. According to Heat Vision, Denis Leary, the popular Rescue Me actor and admitted asshole (seriously, he wrote a song about it), is about to step into the role of George Stacy, police captain and father of main Spidey squeeze Gwen Stacy.

Leary joins a cast that already includes Andrew Garfield as the titular web-slinger, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors (a.k.a The Lizard), Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, and Sally Field as Aunt May. The as-yet-untitled flick is slated for release in 2012. Hit the jump for more on what you can expect out of George Stacy.

At this point, we know very little about what Webb and writers James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent have cooked up, other than that it will skew younger and likely take its cue from the more recent Ultimate Spider-Man comics, which could be bad news for Peter Parker.

In the classic comics, George Stacy is a big supporter of Spider-Man, particularly his efforts to get with his daughter. In the Ultimate universe (where he’s known as “John” and has family troubles), not quite as enthused, and given Leary’s trademark acerbic shtick, you have to think that young Peter Parker might just be in for an uphill climb to win dad’s approval.

It’s also worth noting that in both the classic and Ultimate storylines, Stacy bites the dust as collateral damage in a Spidey-involved incident. In the former, he sacrifices himself to save a child from a chunk of debris knocked loose in a Spider-Man/Doc Ock showdown; in the latter, he’s blown away saving another child from the havoc wrought by a Spidey impersonator, understandably nudging his daughter into the J. Jonah Jameson school of thought on the webslinger.

How much the character will resemble either version, we don’t know. But either way, I’m looking forward to some crackling repartee between Stone and Leary.