NEED TO KNOW
\nJosh Hutcherson was “in the running” to play Spider-Man before landing his role as Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games film series”And so I had gotten told ‘no’ to Spider-Man, which as a teenager felt heartbreaking because I really obviously wanted to be Spider-Man,” he saidIt was reported earlier this month that Jennifer Lawrence and Hutcherson are expected to reprise their roles in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel<\/p>\n
Josh Hutcherson<\/a> almost played another role in a popular franchise, which could have jeopardized his chances of starring in The Hunger Games<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n On the Dec. 9 episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson<\/a>\u2019s Dinner\u2019s on Me<\/a> podcast, the actor, 33, recalled auditioning to play Spider-Man<\/a> before landing his role as Peeta Mellark in the hit movies based on Suzanne Collins’ novels.\n<\/p>\n Speaking about how Hunger Games changed his life, he said, “It was wild. It was crazy. Just like a few months before I got cast in Hunger Games, I was in the running to be Spider-Man.”\n<\/p>\n Josh Hutcherson in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1’.<\/p>\n Murray Close\/Lionsgate<\/p>\n “And so I had gotten told ‘no’ to Spider-Man, which as a teenager felt heartbreaking because I really obviously wanted to be Spider-Man,” Hutcherson continued.\n<\/p>\n “Then, like a few months later, I got cast in Hunger Games, which is like the craziest turn of events,” he said. “Just crazy how it works\u2026 Hunger Games just came out of nowhere, and it just changed everything.”\n<\/p>\n The first Hunger Games movie, in which Hutcherson starred alongside Jennifer Lawrence<\/a>, was released in 2012. The movie was followed by 2013\u2019s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014\u2019s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay \u2013 Part 1 and 2015\u2019s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay \u2013 Part 2.\n<\/p>\n The role of Spider-Man ultimately went to Andrew Garfield<\/a>, who played the superhero in The Amazing Spider-Man<\/a>, which hit theaters less than four months after The Hunger Games in 2012. The superhero flick released a sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in 2014. Garfield later reprised his role in 2021\u2019s Spider-Man: No Way Home<\/a>, alongside current Spider-Man actor Tom Holland<\/a> and former Spider-Man Tobey Maguire<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Andrew Garfield in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’.<\/p>\n Jaimie Trueblood\/Columbia\/Sony<\/p>\n Hutcherson has also starred in Bridge to Terabithia, The Beekeeper, Five Nights at Freddy’s<\/a>, and the HBO comedy series, I Love LA<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n In an August 2025 interview with Brit + Co<\/a>, Hutcherson addressed whether he’d ever return to the Hunger Games<\/a> franchise.\n<\/p>\n “That’d be cool,” Hutcherson said at the time when asked about rumors of his casting in the next movie. “No, I know nothing in that world right now.”\n<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\n<\/p>\n However, it was reported earlier this month that Lawrence and Hutcherson are expected to reprise their roles<\/a> in the Hunger Games<\/a> prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n While specifics of their roles have yet to be released, Peeta and Lawrence’s character, Katniss, notably appear in an epilogue chapter of the original novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Josh Hutcherson was “in the running” to play Spider-Man before landing his role as Peeta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-345673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}