Friendly reminder that we almost had Joe Jonas, and not Andrew Garfield, as the Amazing Spider-Man

After Spider-Man: No Way Home, it should be pretty safe to say that we all discovered a new-found appreciation for Andrew Garfield for his tenure as Peter Parker, even if box office numbers, overall audience, and critic sentiment towards The Amazing Spider-Man were lukewarm.

Still, that sentiment could well have been worse if the role had landed in the wrong hands. In an alternate timeline across our multiverse, that may have been the case, as we were recently reminded by Joe Jonas, who recalled when he was up for the role of the titular web-slinger in Marc Webb’s film.

Ultimately, Jonas was in agreement that at the end of the day, the mantle of Spider-Man went to the right actor:

“I remember years ago I was up for Spider-Man and I was so, so excited and it was the year Andrew Garfield got it. Obviously, he was the right one. But I remember that was a big thing at the time, going back for callbacks. And the director used to be a music video director, so I was like, ‘I got an in here.’ But you know what? I love the process of auditioning and putting yourself out there and having to prove yourself.”

Joe Jonas broached the subject of auditioning for Spider-Man while chatting with the Just for Variety podcast, in a segway from his audition process for Devotion, where the actor has a starring role. 

We don’t know about you, but we’re also quite glad the casting panned out the way it did. We couldn’t imagine Jonas displaying the raw emotions behind the extremely devastating loss of Gwen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, much less his redemption save of MJ in No Way Home. 

Regardless, Jonas has gone on to flex his acting chops elsewhere – you can catch him in Devotion alongside his co-stars Jonathan Majors and Glenn Powell, in theaters now.