Home v8
How can you imagine another actor than Tom Cruise playing Mission Impossible or Sylvester Stallone playing Rocky, let alone doing better than them?
But what if we told you that aside from Toby Maguire, your friendly neighbor Spiderman could have been played by the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson? We know it sounds crazy, but it turns out that the singer was desperate to play Spiderman and X-Men and was in love with the Marvel heroes
We always knew that Jackson thought he was Peter Pan, because his mind was stuck in his childhood. But according to Marvel legend Stan Lee, he had a particular fondness for the webbed superhero. This was in the 1990s, long before Maguire took on the role.
During the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Stanley Lee said, “Michael thought I would be the one to get him the rights to do a Spider-Man movie and I told him I couldn’t. He had to go to the company and get the rights to do it. He had to go to Marvel.”
By the end of 2009, Marvel was not doing very well financially and there were rumors that Marvel was to be sold to Chinese groups and was in financial trouble. Acting behind the scenes, Michael Jackson was genuinely interested in buying the comic book company.
For that, he also had to be the director, Movie Pilot reports. In the end, Jackson was unable to secure the rights from Marvel and his dream of swinging through New York was gone.
Lee told Moviefone, “I think he would have been very good, but I have to say Toby Maguire was wonderful. He would have been totally different of course, but maybe not as successful. Michael was not a great businessman.”
However, this wasn’t the Billie Jean writer’s only attempt at a foray into the superhero world. According to X-Men screenwriter David Hayter, Jackson also tried to land one of the franchise’s biggest roles: Professor X.
“So I was lucky enough to be there for some of the people who came in, like Terence Stamp for Xavier and Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey for Storm,” Hayter recalls. “Michael Jackson came because he wanted to play Professor X. It was amazing!”
But what if we told you that aside from Toby Maguire, your friendly neighbor Spiderman could have been played by the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson? We know it sounds crazy, but it turns out that the singer was desperate to play Spiderman and X-Men and was in love with the Marvel heroes
We always knew that Jackson thought he was Peter Pan, because his mind was stuck in his childhood. But according to Marvel legend Stan Lee, he had a particular fondness for the webbed superhero. This was in the 1990s, long before Maguire took on the role.
During the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Stanley Lee said, “Michael thought I would be the one to get him the rights to do a Spider-Man movie and I told him I couldn’t. He had to go to the company and get the rights to do it. He had to go to Marvel.”
By the end of 2009, Marvel was not doing very well financially and there were rumors that Marvel was to be sold to Chinese groups and was in financial trouble. Acting behind the scenes, Michael Jackson was genuinely interested in buying the comic book company.
For that, he also had to be the director, Movie Pilot reports. In the end, Jackson was unable to secure the rights from Marvel and his dream of swinging through New York was gone.
Lee told Moviefone, “I think he would have been very good, but I have to say Toby Maguire was wonderful. He would have been totally different of course, but maybe not as successful. Michael was not a great businessman.”
However, this wasn’t the Billie Jean writer’s only attempt at a foray into the superhero world. According to X-Men screenwriter David Hayter, Jackson also tried to land one of the franchise’s biggest roles: Professor X.
“So I was lucky enough to be there for some of the people who came in, like Terence Stamp for Xavier and Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey for Storm,” Hayter recalls. “Michael Jackson came because he wanted to play Professor X. It was amazing!”
One of Jackson’s most notable credits in the film industry was in Men in Black II, where he appeared on screen for a few seconds as Agent M.
Comment here