If you go by more than a few accounts, 2012 was meant to be the year of Taylor Kitsch. The sci-fi epicness of John Carter would be the launchpoint; in Battleship, he’d be indoctrinated into the summer tentpole; and, by doing Savages, the actor could work with an American legend in a down-and-dirty crime tale. What happened?

It’s simple: John Carter bombed, Battleship bombed, and Savages bombed. Our own appreciation of Andrew Stanton‘s space adventure couldn’t make much of a difference, either.

Now that his cinematic 2012 is altogether done, Kitsch’s hopes of being a Hollywood star lie in the years ahead. An answer, it seems, lies in Need for Speed, as Zap2It report that he’s been offered the lead role of the videogame adaptation, which Scott Waugh will direct for DreamWorks and producer Steven Spielberg. Fans and detractors shouldn’t get themselves in a tizzy just yet; nothing’s been signed, and Kitsch is simply “considering the offer” at the moment.

No one really knows what kind of part he’d take — other than the obvious descriptor of “a racer” — since the screenplay, by George Gatins, is being kept under lock and key, save for the detail that its story comes from the games themselves. (Don’t ask me, buddy.) I’m guessing the character wouldn’t be so different from, say, Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious; it won’t make him a dramatic lead in anyone’s eyes, but it could be the second (fourth) chance he has at stardom. If that’s what it takes, I say he goes for it.

Need for Speed opens on February 7th, 2014.

Could Need for Speed be the boost Kitsch has needed?