Way back in 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures embarked on a hunt for their new Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield had been unceremoniously dropped from the franchise after starring in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, though it made sense to find a new, younger actor to reboot Peter Parker for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Matt Lintz was a relative unknown at the time, but he was said to be among the top choices for the role alongside Tom Holland and Charlie Rowe. The former would eventually be given the privilege of donning the iconic red and blue costume, though Lintz has since been given the chance to join a different corner of the MCU as Kamala Khan's best friend, Bruno, in Ms. Marvel.
Talking to Insider, The Walking Dead alum confirmed that he was indeed among those in the running to play Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War.
"I was in the top for Spider-Man, which eventually went to this guy, Tom Holland. I don't know if you know who he is," Lintz joked before revealing he met the actor while working on Ms. Marvel. "It was cool because he ended up coming to one of our sets one day and I just got to speak to him, and I look up to him in so many ways.
"He's such an amazing person and an actor and it seems like life has come full circle."
We'd have certainly been interested to see what Lintz brought to the table as Spider-Man, but Holland has put his mark on the character in a way that makes it difficult to imagine anyone else playing the web-slinger. Bruno is a great character in his own right, of course, and has already proven himself a key part of Kamala's transformation into the MCU's Ms. Marvel.
Would you have liked to see Lintz play Spider-Man?
Ms. Marvel is a new, original series that introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a Super Hero mega fan with an oversized imagination—particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with super powers, right?
Joining Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel in the show are Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Nakli, Azhar Usman, Travina Springer, and Nimra Bucha. Bisha K. Ali is the show's Head Writer, while episodes were directed by Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
The first three episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.