‘The Walking Dead’ star Matt Lintz was in the running to play Spider-Man years ago before he was cast on ‘Ms. – Business Insider India

Matt Lintz ("The Walking Dead") is starring in this month's new Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel, but we almost saw him join the Marvel Cinematic Universe years earlier.

"I was in the top for Spider-Man, which eventually went to this guy, Tom Holland. I don't know if you know who he is," Lintz joked with Insider Thursday about losing out on the role.

In 2015, according to the Meet the Movie Press podcast, Lintz was reportedly among the top three actors in the running for the role of the web-slinger, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, along with Holland and Charlie Plummer. The role eventually went to Holland, 26, who first appeared as Spidey in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War."

There aren't any hard feelings on Lintz's end, who eventually got to meet Holland while filming Disney+'s latest Marvel series, "Ms. Marvel."

"It was cool because he ended up coming to one of our sets one day and I just got to speak to him, and I look up to him in so many ways," Lintz, 21, said of meeting Holland, who was apparently filming "Spider-Man: No Way Home" next door in Atlanta. "He's such an amazing person and an actor and it seems like life has come full circle."

During the show's virtual press conference on Friday, which Insider attended, Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige told press that they were filming the scene with the three Spider-Men (Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield) right next door, noting that a lot of the Spidey crew kept sneaking over to the "Ms. Marvel" set.

On "Ms. Marvel," Lintz may not have any superpowers, but he does play super genius Bruno Carrelli, the tech-savvy best friend of Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) who becomes endowed with powers to become the titular Ms. Marvel.

After his time on "The Walking Dead" ended in 2019, Lintz told Insider he was taking some time to himself to focus on school. But when the opportunity for a Marvel audition came around again, about two years ago, he couldn't say no, the actor said. It was his first audition since his time on the AMC apocalyptic drama came to a close.

"It was my freshman year of college. I was about two months in and I got an audition. It was untitled, but for Marvel. I auditioned a couple times," Lintz said Thursday, not thinking anything may come of it. "I was like, 'OK, well, I probably won't get it."

But then Lintz was called back to screen test with the show's lead, Vellani, and costar Rish Shah, who plays Kamran. When both went well, Lintz had to make a tough choice between school and starring in a Marvel series.

"I went straight into filming and I had to drop out of school to do this," Lintz noted. "School's always there. If I want to go back, I can go back. But right now, I'm doing this and I'm really happy."

While the actor is proud of the show as a whole, Lintz said that he's most excited for fans to see the show's third episode.

"Episode three has a big event in it that I think people are gonna like," he teased. "I don't wanna say too much, but there's a cool event and it's a lot of fun."

"Ms. Marvel" is set to begin streaming on Disney+ on June 8.

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'The Walking Dead' star Matt Lintz was in the running to play Spider-Man years ago before he was cast on 'Ms. - Business Insider India