Spider-Man: Homecoming almost starred Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, the award-winning songwriter and actor has revealed.
Speaking via the Happy Sad Confused podcast nearly 10 years on, Miranda confirmed for the first time that he had turned down the role of Spider-Man villain Vulture, ultimately played Michael Keaton.
It’s hard to imagine anyone but Keaton in the role now — and Miranda himself said that he believed he would have been “deeply miscast” as Vulture — but the frequent Disney collaborator suggested he still would have loved to take part, had the timing been better.
“I would have been miscast,” Miranda began. “It was Vulture, and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin Feige told me the whole plot [of Spider-Man: Homecoming] over the phone.
“‘And they get to the door and it’s her dad’,” Miranda continued, recalling Feige telling him about the moment that Vulture’s secret identity is revealed. “I went ‘OH!’ over the phone. I was the canary in the coal mine,” he added, claiming that Feige later told him that his shocked reaction was the moment he realized that the film was going to work.
But despite being impressed with the movie’s plot, Miranda felt he had to turn down the role as it began shooting “literally as [I] stepped off the stage doing Hamilton” after a nearly 18-month run, which had left him in need of a break.
“I went, ‘I would really like this, I really like these movies, but I would like to stay married, so I cannot do this.’ And god, it would have been terrible,” Miranda continued. “Michael Keaton was perfect, they found exactly who they needed. And I’m very glad. I have no regrets, I needed a vacation so badly, and I think I would have been deeply miscast.”
Released in 2017, Spider-Man: Homecoming was the first solo outing for Tom Holland’s take on Spidey, and a huge hit for Marvel. This month sees the launch of Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, Brand New Day, which is expected to open with the year’s best box office so far. Over the weekend, Feige suggested that the movie would feature an appearance by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, alongside an enormous swathe of other Marvel characters — including whoever Sadie Sink is playing.
Could Miranda have another crack at the MCU in future? Asked whether he had any other Disney-backed projects on the horizon, Miranda claimed he did not — though was keen to work on a stage version of Pixar movie Encanto when he had time to do so.
Image credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
