Given the momentous occasion, we thought now would be a good time to look back at the legacy that Holland is stepping into by picking five of our favorite actors who have played the role in the past, either in live action or animation.
Here are our picks.
Tobey Maguire
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Tobey Maguire starred in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and he was prefect for those films. Steeped in the spirit of Spider-Man’s early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko years, Maguire brought sincerity and awkwardness that defined Peter Parker. Some these days like to pick on Maguire’s performance for not being funny enough. To them I say get out of the nineties, and go check out some Silver Age goodness. If it wasn’t for the greatness of Maguire and Raimi’s Spidey flicks, we probably be in the midst superhero movie madness today.
Andrew Garfield
The cool kids’ Spider-Man, Garfield certainly brought an effortless sense of humor to the role as a much quipier Spider-Man than his predecessor. His wit and chemistry with co—star Emma Stone are what carried both Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel (No offense to the Lizard and aqua-blue Electro).
Christopher Daniel Barnes
The 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series managed to take everything about classic Spider-Man comics and give it motion. Sure, sometimes it packed more animation than the times could handle, but Spidey had a voice actor capable of carrying the weight in Christopher Daniel Barnes. Barnes took all that wordy, Stan Lee style dialogue that usually better read than heard, and made the purple dialogue sound effortless and natural.
Josh Keaton
Though short-lived and not nearly as popular as it deserved, Spectacular Spider-Man is arguably the best Marvel animated series ever. That accolade is in no smart part due to the strong performance by the show’s voice of Peter parker, Josh Keaton. Its only right then, that the voice actor from the best Spider-Man cartoon ranks among our best Spider-Man voice actors.
Drake Bell
Don’t believe that Drake Bell, the voice of Spider-Man on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, deserves to be on this list? Consider then, that many fans suggested Bell to play Marvel’s new live action Spider-Man before Tom Holland was announced. That’s about as a strong an approval on a voice performance as an actor can get.
Who are some of your favorite Spider-Man actors? Let us know in the comments.
Check out when the next Spider-Man movie and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com’s Movie Release Schedule.
