As the new Marvel Cinematic Universe remodeling of Spider-Man draws ever closer, another young actor who would seem a plausible candidate for the role has thrown his name into the hat – Freddie Highmore.
Quizzed on whether he might be interested by IGN, the 23-year old London born actor replies, “obviously I would love to be considered. That would be fantastic. I guess we’ll just see how things go.”
Still, the actor – currently seen in the lead of TV’s ‘Psycho’ prequel series ‘Bates Motel’ – says he is not active on social media and has not been personally “stoking any fires” to get fan support (though I guess we can consider them stoked now).
On the attraction of the part, Highmore says, ”you always feel like you can identify with him. He’s that kind of guy at school who wasn’t perhaps in the really cool group, but who was extremely intelligent and managed to find confidence in being Spider-Man – in this other side to his life.
“I was going to try and make a comparison between Spider-Man and Norman Bates, but I’m not sure…it’s probably best to stay clear of that one.”
Although as Highmore contemplates, there would be some common ground as both characters are pop culture icons:
“As with Norman Bates, some people would always say, ‘Oh, is it tricky playing Norman knowing he has this history behind him, and with Anthony Perkins’ classic performance that you will always be compared to?’
“I guess similarly with the actor who ends up playing Spider-Man there will always be comparisons made with Tobey Maguire’s great performance and most recently Andrew Garfield.”
Indeed, were he to land the role of Peter Parker, it would be the latest in a series of high-profile iconic roles for Highmore, whose early child actor years saw him appear as a young King Arthur in TV movie ‘The Mists of Avalon,’ and the title characters in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘Astro Boy.’
Highmore’s CV also includes ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles,’ ‘The Golden Compass’ and the ‘Arthur and the Invisibles’ movies.
‘Bates Motel’ has since established that he isn’t a kid anymore, but with his youthful looks and dramatic chops, Highmore would seem as likely a candidate as any for the new Spidey – assuming that Marvel and Sony choose to introduce a new Peter Parker, rather than the more recent comic book iteration of the character, Miles Morales, which there has been much speculation about.
Whoever wins the role, the new Spider-Man is expected to make his debut in next year’s ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ before appearing in his own solo movie – rumoured to be entitled ‘The Spectacular Spider-Man,’ with Drew Goddard writing and directing – in summer 2017.
