Lin-Manuel Miranda Turned Down Vulture Role In Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’: “I Would Have Been SO Miscast”

There are heaps of what-if casting stories concerning the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this one has us scratching our heads a little bit, as Lin-Manuel Miranda is revealing that he was offered and passed on playing the main villain, The Vulture, in Jon Watts and Marvel Studios‘ first big feature collaboration with Sony Pictures on “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

The “Hamilton” star spoke to Josh Horowitz on his podcast “Happy Sad Confused,” dishing about the offer from the studio to play the Spidey villain, only to turn it down, adding, “I would have been so miscast” in the part. After Horowitz guessed correctly that his would-be role in “Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the Vulture, Miranda expanded on things and his reasoning for not doing it and praised the Michael Keaton performance.

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“It was Vulture, and Kevin Feige told me the entire plot over the phone…I really was the canary in the coal mine, and I said, ‘When does it shoot?’ and he said, ‘Basically, the moment you step off stage on “Hamilton.” And I went, ‘Well, I really like these movies, but I’d really like to stay married, so I cannot do this.” And, god, that would have been terrible…No, Michael Keaton was PERFECT, like they found exactly who they needed.”

While Lin-Manuel Miranda would have been a wild casting choice this doesn’t sound terribly shocking given that John Leguizamo (“John Wick”), who is part of the massive cast of Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey,” told ComicBook back in 2023 that he was also said to be up for the Vulture role (so, they at least were considering casting a Latino actor to play Adrian Toomes); however, he believed he was being used to get Keaton back for the part after trying to replace him. He felt like a “pawn” and turned down another “tiny” part that was offered to him.

“I was supposed to be the Vulture,” Leguizamo said of his experience nearly playing the Marvel Comics villain. “We had negotiated, and I was about to play him, and they said that Michael Keaton wanted it back, and they asked me if I would give it up. I said, ‘Well, okay, I guess.’ They said, ‘No, we’ll work with you again, we’re gonna…’ That’s what happened there.”

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Keaton would reprise the Vulture part in the long-forgotten “Morbius” film led by Jared Leto, as the messy crossover was super confusing to even the actor himself, as the studio couldn’t really explain how it worked, and the Sonyverse would get scrapped after a bunch of box office misfires.

That full exchange between Lin-Manuel Miranda and Horowitz can be explored below.