Long before he was cast as a young Han Solo in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, Alden Ehrenreich auditioned for Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. The role ultimately went to Andrew Garfield, though he only donned the spandex for four years before Tom Holland took over in 2016.
It's hard to imagine Ehrenreich as Spidey now, but he was once said to be a frontrunner to take over as Spider-Man from Tobey Maguire.
However, the actor has told Josh Horowitz that his audition went so poorly he never expected to land the coveted part. In fact, there was a huge part of him that didn't even want it.
"I remember [Andrew] coming in when I was walking out," Ehrenreich said with a laugh. "But in that moment, I really didn't want to do it, to be honest. I think it was also where I was at internally. Clearly, they created something that breathed new life into it, but all that existed at that time [was Tobey Maguire]."
"Now we're in this moment where 18 people have played Spider-Man, but to me, [it] was the same story. I felt like I had to audition for it," he continued. "I'm not suggesting that I would have gotten the role. I think Andrew Garfield is one of the best actors of my generation, easily. He's incredible, and I'm sure he would have gotten it anyway."
Ehrenreich went on to admit he showed up for his audition "woefully unprepared," putting it down to being only 21 or 22 at the time. He hadn't memorised his lines for "a scene with 10 actors having dinner" and recalled, "They were off book, and I was not. So, if I did have a chance for that, I think I blew it. It wasn't right for me. I didn't want to do it."
Years later, the actor got another shot at a comic book role with Marvel Television's Ironheart. Playing Ezekiel Stane, the son of Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane, he delivered a scene-stealing performance that set the stage for the unmade Armor Wars movie.
For now, Zeke is on the shelf alongside Riri Williams and The Hood, and there's no obvious next destination for any of them. Despite that, the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever follow-up remains a positive experience for Ehrenreich.
Reflecting on his time in the MCU, he said, "I really like the role. I haven't really seen the show, but I think it came out well, and I liked what they wrote there. I thought it was interesting. I mean, that's part of why I said yes: I thought the role actually had a lot of places it could go and grow. I thought that was really appealing to me because I found it really interesting."
"A lot of that was down to Chinaka Hodge, who wrote it and was the showrunner," Ehrenreich noted. "She's fantastic, and she's now a part of our playwright circle at my theater."
You can hear more from Ehrenreich, including why Solo: A Star Wars Story proved such a challenging experience, in the player below.