Please take it as strictly an unfounded rumor for now and nothing official, but heck, it’s interesting and does have some logic behind it (kind of): Anton Yelchin is apparently a potential candidate to play Harry Osborne in “Spider-Man.”
IMDB’s page for Marc Webb’s “Spider-Man” lists Yelchin as being “rumored” for the part of Harry Osborn, but given the site’s unreliability for casting news, particularly for films in pre-production, take it with a huge grain of salt. Also, we’ve dug around and aside from IMDB, we can’t seem to find any chatter from any other sources about this. Does IMDB know something nobody else does?
What do we think? It’s possible. It’s certainly not inconceivable that the producers might want to utilize some of the many names and excellent talent that sought the Spider-Man role — Jamie Bell (“Jumper,” “The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn”), Josh Hutcherson (“Zathura,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth”), Alden Ehrenreich (“Tetro“), and Frank Dillane (one of the evil kids from the recent “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince“) in other parts for the film. And certainly, if the Harry Osborn part is meaty enough, we could see Yelchin being interested, however, given that Andrew Garfield was paid a pretty measly $500,000 for the lead role, we don’t imagine secondary roles are going to pay out big, which could be a sticking point for a rising actor like Yelchin.
However, one suggestion has come up that seems more feasible and one we would definitely endorse. Actress Elena Satine, who has auditioned and is campaigning for the role of Mary Jane Watson, tweeted last week after the Garfield announcement: “Garfield is Spidey!!!! Now Alden Ehrenreich should get a nice consolation prize (cough HARRY cough) and we’re rolling. How about MJ? Hmm…”
Yeah, we could definitely live with that. It’s kind of criminal that Ehrenreich hasn’t been linked to more parts following his breakout role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro.” And really, Ehrenreich’s schedule is way open. He has a part in Sofia Coppola’s forthcoming “Somewhere” and aside from that, is somewhat surprisingly not linked to anything. Harry Osborn could be the gateway part that could finally boost the actor into more, higher-profile gigs. He’s definitely a talent we would like to see more of on screen.
But, while no decisions have been made, Comic Con is around the corner. We’re sure Sony would love to have their major cast members on display, and it should be an interesting couple of weeks leading up to the event.