Remember the creepy child Mordred in the early years of Merlin? 14-year-old actor Asa Butterfield is reportedly close to landing the lead role of the Ender’s Game adaptation film!

Deadline reports that Butterfield, who is most famous for his roles in Merlin and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and is set to star in Hugo later this year, has been offered the lead in the adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

Summit Entertainment has optioned the film, which is set for release on March 15 2013 and is to be directed by X-Men‘s Gavin Hood. Ender’s is sure to appeal to fans of The Hunger Games due to their similar subject matter and tone.

The 1985 sci-fi book centers on the character Ender, a third child in a society where the government only permits two children. Growing up as a ‘third’ is difficult for Ender, but he soon discovers his true purpose: the government is looking for a leader of their fleet which has to destroy Earth’s alien enemies, and Ender’s two older siblings showed potential but didn’t quite fit the bill, so their parents were commissioned to have a third child. Ender is selected for a prestigious space programme where he has to learn to lead through a series of gruelling ‘games,’ or tests, that will determine whether he is the leader the world has been waiting for.

We think that Asa would be a great fit for the role of Ender! What do you think?