Asa Butterfield Nearly Beat Tom Holland for Spider-Man — Here’s What He’s Doing Now
As Spider-Man: Brand New Day lines up a massive box office opening, one contender very nearly landed the Spider-Man role before Tom Holland.
At 19, British actor Charlie Rowe advanced all the way to a full screen test for the MCU ’s new Spider- Man as Marvel and Sony whittled the field to just a handful of finalists. He wasn’t a household name, but among fans he looked uncannily like a Peter Parker—his face kept popping up in fancasts and Reddit debates during the search that ultimately ended with Tom Holland .
Rowe’s response when the role went to Holland turned heads for a different reason: he publicly congratulated the new Spidey on X and said he believed he would’ve made a strong Peter himself. Coming after multiple reported screen tests, that mix of confidence and grace is why his near-miss still gets brought up whenever people revisit the franchise ’s what-ifs.
It ’s part of a longer Spider-Man casting lore that once included names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal in earlier conversations, before Marvel and Sony pivoted to a younger take.
Where Rowe landed
Instead of chasing another cape, Rowe kept building a steady résumé in film, TV and theater. He’s dotted his career with character-forward projects on both sides of the Atlantic.
- The Golden Compass — early film role
- Never Let Me Go — supporting turn in the dystopian drama
- Red Band Society — Fox’s teen hospital dramedy
- Salvation — CBS sci‑fi thriller
- Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light — recent TV installment
- Let It Come Down — most recent work noted
Holland’s next swing
That almost-Spidey chapter is back in the spotlight because Spider-Man: Brand New Day is being positioned as a major box-office event, with early tracking pointing to a huge global launch for Holland’s return as Peter Parker.
Early projections peg a roughly $800 million worldwide opening.
Reports also point to brisk pre-sales: more than $60 million in North America and over $120 million in advance bookings worldwide, signaling unusually strong demand before opening weekend.
A debut on that scale would also challenge the current box-office run of Christopher Nolan ’s The Odyssey , which has been holding remarkably well. If the projections hold, the opening frame for Brand New Day would trail only Avengers: Endgame for the second-biggest global debut ever.