“Those kinds of movies were not looking good”: Yellowstone Star Nearly Replaced Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man But Blamed Batman Movies for His Decision
This Yellowstone actor was an up-and-coming actor with an Oscar-winning picture to his name when he rejected Spider-Man
The original Spider-Man films could’ve changed the career of one Yellowstone star but he chose to turn down the offer. Tobey Maguire’s Spidey role was reportedly first offered to Wes Bentley, who now plays the despicable Jamie Dutton in Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama. Bentley revealed that he rejected the offer since the comic book movies were not performing well at the time, especially with the two subpar Batman movies from Joel Schumacher.
Before he turned down the Spider-Man role, Bentley became a promising young star with his role as Ricky Fitts in American Beauty. Bentley went on to star in other movies like The Hunger Games, Interstellar, and Mission: Impossible 6.
Yellowstone Star Wes Bentley Could’ve Been The Original Spider-Man Actor
Wes Bentley found mainstream success largely from movies before he was cast in the role of Jamie Dutton in Paramount+’s Yellowstone. His character is the ambitious adopted son of John and Evelyn Dutton in the series and engages in some questionable acts to achieve his big goals. Bentley was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2022, discussing his popular roles and a popular role that he turned down.
Bentley shared with Jimmy Kimmel that after his breakout role in American Beauty, he was offered a role that could’ve given him an entirely different career path in Hollywood. According to Bentley, he was one of the first actors approached by Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man team to play the titular superhero. However, Bentley turned down the role which then went to Tobey Maguire.
The Ghost Rider actor had a reason as to why he did not want to do the web-slinger role. He told Kimmel that the comic book genre had a bad rap at the time. He shared that Joel Schumacher‘s Batman films turned out to be disastrous and such movies were not looking good. For this reason, Bentley avoided the genre despite being a fan of the comics. Bentley shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!:
“From what I understand… I had the offer, one of the offers, a first offer, but whether I did or not, I wasn’t going to do it. At that time, we’d come off the Batman disaster, you know the last few Batman films were not great, those kinds of movies were not looking good… I love comic book movies, but at the time I really wanted to do stuff that wasn’t comic book movies, I guess.”
The Four Feathers actor had to wait another two decades to get the audience recognition in Yellowstone. However, he revealed that playing Jamie Dutton was “very draining” since the series had a lot of dark stuff.
Jimmy Kimmel Jokingly Blamed The Yellowstone Star’s Famous Manager For The Lost Role
Wes Bentley revealed that his manager was the famous director and producer Lee Daniels when he auditioned for the American Beauty role. Daniels was nominated for the Best Director Oscar for his 2009 film Precious. Bentley shared the story about how the casting director of the Kevin Spacey movie had no idea who Bentley was when he walked into their office. Both Kimmel and Bentley joked about how Daniels was bad at his manager role.
When the Roanoke star shared about rejecting the Spider-Man role, Kimmel once again brought up Daniels’ name. He joked that Daniels once again proved a bad manager by letting his client reject a popular role. However, Bentley clarified that Daniels did his best to convince him to take on the role.
Bentley’s Yellowstone is now available for streaming on Paramount+. Meanwhile, the original Spider-Man trilogy is now available on Disney+.
