Charlie Sheen Was Almost Spider-Man... I repeat...
by Shannon Keirnan
Spiders and Charlie Sheen? That’s a combination that’ll give me nightmares.
If you thought Tobey Maguire’s version of the web-slinging hero wasn’t quite good enough (will cutie pie Andrew Garfield’s portrayal be more up your alley?), then just count your blessings, because it all could have been much, much worse.
Charlie Sheen has come forward to complain about how he, HE, should have been the rightful Spider-man. The “Two and a Half Men” alum says:
“I had an office at Orion at the time, and I brought them Spider-Man. I said, ‘Look, in a couple of years, I’ll be too old to play Peter Parker.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we’re just thinking that cartoons are not the future, comic books are not the future.’ And I said, but it’s Spider-man! I’m perfect.’ And they were like, ‘Nah, we’re gonna wait.’”
Weird, how they wanted to wait, because Sheen told them, outright, if they waited, he’d be too old. Weird. It’s almost like they didn’t want Sheen to have the part…
Regardless, down the road, “Spider-man” became a big ol’ hit, and Orion, who was behind classics like “Dances With Wolves” and “Platoon” closed down in1998, as comics, apparently, took over the future.
How would our little fragile worlds be different if Sheen had played the role? Now, don’t get me wrong, back in the day—way back, in that day—Sheen wasn’t a bad looking guy. Despite his bad boy persona, maybe he could have stepped into sweet Peter Parker’s shoes, and given us a whole new iconic hero to forever be immortalized as our Spider-man.
But looking at pictures of the star now, it’s kind of a relief that he didn’t.