Marvel: ‘Ender’s Game’s’ Asa Butterfield Rumored To Be New Spider-Man

Asa Butterfield, the 18-year-old English actor who came to prominence in the lead role of the 2011 kid’s fantasy film Hugo, is rumored to be the frontrunner for, if he hasn’t already secured, the role of Peter Parker and his alter-ego Spider-Man in the next rebooting of the film franchise.

Butterfield, who is no stranger to genre films having portrayed the lead role in 2013’s Ender’s Game, has many industry heads pulling for him to land the role, and German Lussier of Slashfilm reports that it may already be a done deal.

According to Latino Review, Butterfield is in final negotiations, and once contracts have been signed, an announcement is imminent. Deadline Hollywood reports that while Butterfield is indeed the top prospect for the role, the list of potentials stands at five.

Marvel recently reacquired the rights to the iconic Spider-Man from Sony, who had controlled the property for most of the last decade and a half. During that time, Spider-Man saw huge box office success behind the Sam Raimi-helmed trilogy that starred Tobey Maguire and the subsequent Amazing Spider-Man film and sequel starring Andrew Garfield.

With Marvel entering Phase 3 of its ambitious decade-plus long slate of blockbuster films based on their characters, it is expected that before Spider-Man appears in his own solo film — rumored to be in 2017 — that the web-slinger will make an appearance in Captain America: Civil War, which is currently filming.

Captain America: Civil War marks the third in the series for the Super Soldier played by Chris Evans, and speculation abounds that, if the films follow the comic book storylines, the Marvel Universe could be torn apart with Cap and Iron Man squaring off against one another. Should that be the case, it will be interesting to see how Marvel handles the reintroduction of Spider-Man into the now-well-established Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what side he will be on.

Civil War marks the entrance into Phase 3 in a throng of eagerly-awaited tentpole blockbusters scheduled for release by the comic book-turned-movie giant, Marvel. Between now and 2019, Marvel is set to release Civil War in 2016, as well as the next two films in The Avengers series, Avengers: Infinity War – Part I in 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part II in 2019, both of which figure to also involve Spider-Man. Also slated for release by Marvel in the next three years are Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Inhumans, and the first Marvel Studios-led Spider-Man solo film in 2017.