With the news that they’ll be directing Marvel Studios’ two-part Avengers: Infinity War saga, director Joe and Anthony Russo will have their hands full for quite some time. But right now, their focus is on Captain America 3. Officially titled Captain America: Civil War, the follow-up is set to begin production next month, and while it has “Captain America” in its name, the film is looking more and more like Avengers 2.5. Robert Downey Jr. will co-star opposite Chris Evans in a story that will pit Avenger vs. Avenger, and Marvel has already confirmed that Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther will be introduced in the film as well. Moreover, this is almost certainly the film in which we’ll meet our new Spider-Man.
With filming on Civil War getting underway in a matter of weeks, Marvel Studios is no doubt working hard alongside Sony Pictures to cast the new Spider-Man. The character’s role in Civil War is probably little more than a cameo, but the contract negotiations for this part are going to be quite tricky, so they need to settle on an actor relatively soon. No matter, it sounds like the audition process is well underway, and a new rumor gives us a strong indication that they’re going young with this Spider-Man.
Devin at Badass Digest—who broke the Russo Brothers/Infinity War news earlier today only to see it confirmed by the trades—reports that Marvel recently auditioned 16-year-old actor Mateus Ward (Weeds, Hostages) for the role of Spider-Man. The studio is trying to keep this process under wraps, going so far as to audition the actor in a house rather than an office or the studio, but it appears that the secret’s out.
Ward is likely one out of hundreds of actors that Marvel and Sony are seeing for the character so who knows if he’ll land the role, but it’s certainly curious that the studios are looking at someone as young as Ward to join the MCU. We heard previously that Sony and Marvel really want this new Spider-Man to be high school aged, and if Badass Digest’s report is correct, then we could see a genuine teenager play Spidey opposite the rest of the Avengers.
This is actually a pretty smart play on Marvel’s part, since they’ll be able to sign an actor who can grow into the role and, who knows, maybe even become the leader of The Avengers someday? This isn’t casting a 25-year-old to play 18, then running into trouble in the third film when the actor is clearly pushing 33. If Marvel is indeed casting a 16-year-old or someone of a similar age, I think it’d be really cool to see the actor literally grow up onscreen and grow into the character through subsequent films.
As Civil War stars filming next month, I expect we’ll likely hear confirmation of our new Spider-Man sometime in April or May, assuming the search moves quickly.
