Casting is truly an art form. What would Tony Stark be without Robert Downey, Jr., who had to fight to be cast? And what would Marvel be without Iron Man's raging success?
Here's a collection of 50 celebrities who almost played superheroes. Some were pursued by the studios but turned the roles down, while some of the comic book movies just never got made altogether. Which of these stars do you wish you had seen in Marvel hero and villain roles? Cast your votes below!
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Joss Whedon's favorite character, Kitty Pryde, was almost played by one of his alumna: “So the girl I turned into sort of a superhero in my movie was going to read for the character that most influenced ALL my girl-heroes, Kitty Pryde. Karmically funky. Anyhoo, she called me after and said it was very emotional and kind of like when she read for 'Firefly,' she just got into a very intense groove. She started telling me about the scene she read and that’s when I realized why it was kind of like she read for 'Firefly.'”
It turns out they had adapted Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men #5 for the sides.
Wish they got the part?This was something else entirely. Before we saw January Jones zombie-walk through the role of Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class, they had something else in mind. Alice Eve had actually been cast and had even been on set. It was rumored she had even filmed some scenes, when dozens of rewrites came through, and she felt the part was no longer worthwhile, as the character was basically being relegated to a scantily clad sidekick. So, Alice Eve walked away and January Jones... happened.
Wish they got the part?Before she was Catwoman, she was cast as Black Cat in the fourth installment of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man franchise. It's funny that she went from one comic publisher's take on a cat-burgling villain to the another's. When Spider-Man 4 fell apart, so did this role.
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How different the X-Men films would have been with Rachel Leigh Cook as Rogue instead of "True Blood's" Anna Paquin. She was outright offered the role when a slew of young stars were vying for it, including Sarah Michelle Gellar and Katherine Isabelle, but ended up turning it down, thinking there would be too much CGI involved.
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Ironically, the role later went to his sometime wrestling partner, Tyler Mane. Bryan Singer originally wanted Kevin Nash for Sabretooth. His schedule eventually prevented him from taking the role, and he later went on to play Jigsaw in The Punisher.
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Spider-Man 4 would have featured John Malkovich as the winged burglar, but after the critical failure of Spider-Man 3 and tensions between the studio and director Sam Raimi, Sony decided to reboot the franchise.
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Unlike some others on this list, Angel was actually locked in, and it was Vogel's role to lose. When he stepped down, Ben Foster was there to swoop in and take the part. Scheduling conflicts between X-Men: The Last Stand and Poseidon, plus director Matthew Vaughn (who cast him) leaving, led to Vogel walking away from the project.
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When Natalie Portman turned down the role of Jubilee, they just cut it from the film. They didn't cut it from the script however, and incorporated many of her scenes, lines, and personality traits into a new and different take on Rogue.
In fact, earlier drafts of Rogue had her much older, with actresses like Kate Winslet being considered for the part.
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Before he was Finnick in The Hunger Games, he was rumored to be in the final three for the role of Green Goblin.
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First, he was cast as Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand, but the role was written out of the script. Then, he was again cast in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but scheduling conflicts and studio shenanigans (plus G.I. Joe drama) kept him out and Taylor Kitsch in (and Kitsch wasn't even that bad). Finally, he was even rumored to play the Cajun in Brian Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse, but that never worked out.
Wish they got the part?Emily Blunt turned down both Black Widow in Iron Man and Captain America's love interest, stating that usually female roles in superhero movies are "thankless" and in both cases "the part wasn't very good or the timing wasn't right." It's a shame, as she could have made an amazing Black Widow, if her performance in Edge of Tomorrow was any indication.
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One of the finalists for the role, with his talent, physique, and physical theatrical background, Neil Patrick Harris ended up losing out on the role to Allan Cumming, due to Cumming's ability to speak fluent German.
Wish they got the part?Before casting Kirsten Dunst, Sam Raimi approached Kate Hudson for the role. She politely turned it down, as it was a huge tent-pole film, and she wasn't taking those roles at that point in her career.
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When Bryan Singer was still on the docket to do X-Men 3, his script called for Emma Frost, and he had the Alien star in mind. In the script, Emma is in full White Queen mode and running the Hellfire Club.
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A finalist for the Amazing Spider-Man reboot, it was rumored to be down to Hutcherson and Andrew Garfield. There's even a stunt tape of Hutcherson in character.
Wish they got the part?Before he was Aragorn, Mortensen was rumored to have been in talks with Bryan Singer for the role of Wolverine.
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Caviezel was reportedly Bryan Singer's first choice for the role (with James Marsden second), but due to scheduling conflicts with Frequency, he had to bow out. Sure, Frequency tanked, and X-Men reinvigorated the entire genre and became a huge franchise, but hey, at least he got to be Jesus?
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Tom Cruise Nearly Played Iron Man
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Cruise was LONG attached to the role, and Marvel's Kevin Feige even had press conferences about the possibility of a Cruise Iron Man. Eventually, talks fell apart.
Cruise spoke about Iron Man saying, “I don’t know. It just … they came to me at a certain point and … when I do something, I wanna do it right. If I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it’s gonna be something special. And as it was lining up, it just didn’t feel to me like it was gonna work.”
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Helen Hunt's string of successful movies throughout the '90s and that golden Academy Award were enough to convince the X-Men producers to offer her the part. In the end, she stepped down from the role, making way for Famke Jannsen.
Wish they got the part?Ledger was offered the iconic role in the Sam Raimi iteration of the character, but he turned it down as he wasn't much of a superhero guy. He said he would be taking someone else's dream.
Wish they got the part?If there's one role at Marvel that has proven hard to cast, it's the Incredible Hulk. Before casting Eric Bana for Banner (tee hee), director Ang Lee was set on casting Crudup in the role. So set, in fact, they had most of the images done up with Crudup's face as the Hulk's. Then, Crudup turned down the role and went on to do Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen, and Hulk went to Eric Bana, then Ed Norton, and then Mark Ruffalo.
Wish they got the part?Back in earlier iterations of the project that would eventually be the X-Men movie, the name Mel Gibson was tossed around for Weapon X. It's not immediately clear what would've happened to the franchise during Gibson's extremely high-profile controversies in the 2000s.
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While James Cameron was still attached to write and direct a Spidey movie, his Titanic star was attached to play Peter Parker. It's probably all for the best though, Cameron's take on Spider-Man was... peculiar. So, the role ended up in the hands of one of DiCaprio's best friends, Tobey Maguire.
Wish they got the part?That's right, Bella was almost MJ, too. Fun fact: Apparently, Robert Pattinson was considered for Peter Parker before Andrew Garfield was cast, so all of those people complaining the reboot is "too Twilight-y" almost had a lot more to say.
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Olyphant auditioned for the role and publicly expressed interest.
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You're not misreading that first name. Chris's little brother was actually brought in for the lead role first and then... they called his big brother, and he nailed it. It's likely that Christmas dinner was a little tense that year.
Wish they got the part?In the right hands, with the right script, this could have been amazing. Banner isn't necessarily handsome and beefy; he's a brilliant, mild-mannered scientist. This guy has the acting chops and physicality to nail Bruce Banner, and he even went as far as testing for it. Ultimately, the role went to Eric Bana.
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The frontrunner for Cap, beating out so many actors for the hugely coveted part, and wowing everyone with two apparently amazing screen tests was "The Office's" own John Krasinski. In fact, it was thought to be his until Chris Evans took back his original "no" and... got the part without auditioning. Ouch.
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While Sony was running around town trying to use James Cameron's script treatment (but not the director himself) to get a Spidey film going, two of the frontrunners for the lead were Freddie Prinze, Jr. and James Franco. Franco went on to be Harry Osborn when Sam Raimi got the movie made, and Freddie Prinze... was Fred in Scooby Doo.
Wish they got the part?Considered for: Thor
Long before Liam Hemsworth was cast, this guy's name was attached to star. Who is he? Well, he's John Travolta's cousin, a trained Shakespearian actor and an extremely accomplished martial artist.
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When it came to X-Men, easily the most recognizable and biggest star up for the role of Logan was Russell Crowe, but casting eventually went with Dougray Scott, and then Hugh Jackman.
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Back when Marvel was extremely reluctant to cast the essentially blacklisted Robert Downey, Jr., Clive Owen was rumored to be in talks for the role.
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David Duchovny really, really wanted to be The Hulk. He was up for the role in a straight-to-DVD sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk and was called in when Eric Bana bailed (around when he heard it was straight to DVD). Duchovny was willing to sign on, but the whole project was scrapped, and Norton came on for a new version.
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Before Ang Lee was even mentioned as a Hulk director, the plan was to make a Michael France-scripted, Jonathan Hensleigh-directed, Johnny Depp-starring, Hulk film. The script got out of hand with three villains (The Leader, The Absorbing Man, and Zzzax), and Johnny Depp ended up passing.
Wish they got the part?- 35
Alden Ehrenreich Almost Played Spider-Man
Alden was actually considered for both Peter Parker in the first film and then for Harry Osborn in the sequel.
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Yup. The original goal was to cast one actor for small Steve Rogers pre-transformation, and have Lundgren play Cap, post Super Soldier serum. But scheduling became an issue, and Marvel ended up using him as the Punisher instead.
Wish they got the part?If there was ever a man to play Rob Liefield's impossibly jacked Cap, it is this man. He was up for the role in the 1990 sponge eared interpretation, but eventually lost out due to his extremely heavy accent. It turns out Captain AMERICA shouldn't sound quite so Austrian.
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He wasn't competing with Chris Evans for The Avengers iteration; he was up for the role in the awful 1990 interpretation. So maybe it's not the worst career decision that he turned it down to star in The Doors. He could have made an amazing Cap back then though, and who knows what that movie might have been had he been involved.
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This was way back in the day, before even James Cameron's Spider-Man. Tobe Hooper (yup, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Tobe Hooper) was to direct a Spider-Man movie, and he wanted Maverick himself. They even did location scouts and storyboards for a Cruise-Spidey. In this version, Bob Hoskins was Doc Ock and Lauren Bacall was dear Aunt May.
Wish they got the part?Cast as: Wolverine
The world almost never experienced the glory of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (and maybe wouldn't have known how awesome Hugh Jackman is in general). If it hadn't been for "scheduling conflicts" with Mission Impossible 2, Scott would have had the role. Rumor was he broke his hand on set and had to relinquish his role.Wish they got the part?- Photo:
Wolverine went to Vietnam, right? Let's get Lt. Dan! Back in earlier incarnations of the original X-Men script, Sinise's name was tossed around quite a bit.
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In an earlier incarnation of what would become the X-Men movie, even Bryan Singer's version was an idea. They thought of setting it in the '80s with an adamantium-laced Bob Hoskins. At least he's the right height?
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