Tom Holland has made it clear that he’d love nothing more than to see Miles Morales inherit the mantle to lead the next batch of Spider-Man movies once the current incumbent hangs up the spandex for good, but co-star Tony Revolori doesn’t sound quite so optimistic.
Having spent three films antagonizing Peter Parker while fawning over his alter-ego, the 26 year-old actor’s performance as Flash Thompson has endeared him to a whole new legion of fans, as well as putting a fresh spin on the typical high school jock that we’ve typically seen in previous films and comic books.
However, the Wes Anderson favorite admitted in an interview with Insider that he originally auditioned for the title role back when Homecoming was searching for cinema’s third live-action web-slinger, and he doesn’t sound convinced that a non-white star would even be considered for Peter Parker.
“It seems to commonly occur that we go into a part like this where you want it so badly, you’re willing to do more than anyone else. But it becomes a tough thing when you’re not even considered for it before they move along. I think the issue is that, sure, they let us all audition, but did we even have the chance?
I’m sure they would tell you otherwise because they’re far too kind, but I remember absolutely bombing the audition because I didn’t have any belief in myself to be able to say, ‘Yes, I can be Spider-Man, I will be Spider-Man,’ because there’s no representation there, not in the comics…The idea that you have to make a completely new character to play that role is difficult.
The fact that I’ve never seen anyone who looks like me play a role like that made me feel like, ‘Am I going to be able to do this? Is that real, that I can actually have a shot at this?’ And it ends up kind of rocking your belief system. I would love to walk into an audition for Spider-Man and not feel like I don’t deserve the chance or not feel like I have no shot at it from the second I walk in, you know?”
As harsh as that sounds on a surface level, you can completely understand where Revolori is coming from. After all, Miles Morales has been an established part of the comic book mythology since his introduction – so there’s a lot of people who know and love his version of Spider-Man.
Revolori, meanwhile, was an unknown Guatemalan-American auditioning for one of the most coveted parts in superhero cinema, one that had previously been played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, so it’s little wonder his confidence wasn’t where it should have been.
