Spider-Man: 15 Actors Who Almost Played Major Roles

As the world prepares to be caught in the web of Spider-Man's MCU solo film, let's not forget that there was a time when Tom Holland wasn't the golden boy in the red and blue lycra. Before Michael Keaton took to the skies as Vulture, or Bokeem Woodbine stuck on his gloves as Shocker, there has been a whole spideyverse of characters and some pretty famous faces.

While it would seem hard to imagine anyone other than Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, or Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, they weren't always the first choice for bringing Marvel’s characters to our screen. Before Tobey Maguire was swinging across the NYC skyline, everyone from Tom Cruise to Michael Jackson wanted a piece of Web-Head. So, let's look at who was close to nabbing themselves one of those elusive Spider-Man roles.

The late '80s was not a good time for superhero films, and when Superman III flopped, not many people were willing to give Spidey a chance. Marvel offered the rights to Cannon Films, and a version directed by Tobe Hooper entered pre-production. Fresh from Top Gun, it was a toss-up between Cruise and Scott Leva, but Cruise was reportedly the front-runner for Web-Head.

There were various financial worries and departures from the team, so a completely different (Cruiseless) version of the Cannon film eventually moved forward with Leva (a Hollywood stunt man) in the lead for financial reasons - it was still a film that never came to be.

Maybe the big bucks of having Cruise could save a film nowadays, but at this point Cruise was still up and coming. In a time before he found Scientology, how would the short-statured actor fair as nerdy Peter Parker? This one certainly would have been "Risky Business" indeed.