An X-Files star Hulking out?
Blade becoming the Black Panther?
These may seem like deep pulls from the far recesses of the multiverse, but they came
closer to our reality than you might imagine.
Keep watching for more actors who were almost Avengers.
The MCU was practically built on Robert Downey Jr.'s shoulders, but he wasn't always a shoe-in
for Iron Man.
After the actor's history of drug and alcohol abuse landed him in prison, studios considered
him to be "box office poison" and a risky investment for future movies.
You know who isn't risky business?
Tom Cruise.
In fact, Cruise has been one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood for decades.
While he claims he never came close to playing Iron Man, Marvel Chief Kevin Feige said in
2004 that the studio had been talking to the actor since the late '90s — but no deal
was ever made.
Many assumed it all came down to money, and, while the then-fledgling Marvel Studios couldn't
afford Cruise, they could afford Robert Downey Jr.
It was a risky move at the time, but Downey's casting has worked out pretty well for both
sides.
The actor's rapscallion wit and heroic heart of gold have not just defined the character,
but the MCU as a whole.
Basically: no RDJ, no MCU.
And Tom Cruise concurs, too, having once said of Downey's performance:
"I can't imagine anyone else in that role, and I think it's perfect for him."
Honestly, you'd struggle to find anyone who disagrees.
Tom Cruise may have been the most bankable movie star to circle the role of Tony Stark,
but he wasn't the only one.
One actor who came especially close to donning the red and gold was Sam Rockwell, who was
previously best known for movies such as Lawn Dogs and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"If there's anything more important than my ego on this ship, I want it caught and shot
right now."
In fact, Iron Man director and MCU producer Jon Favreau personally asked Rockwell to audition
for the role.
Alas, it wasn't to be, though it's not like Rockwell hasn't enjoyed a pretty remarkable
career since 2008, most notably winning an Academy Award for his turn in Three Billboards
Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
He even got his chance to play in the MCU sandbox, having gyrated his way into the role
of Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 — and with the character rumored to appear in the upcoming
Armor Wars series, it seems like Rockwell may not be done with the Marvel Universe just yet.
Before Chadwick Boseman donned the now-iconic mask of Black Panther, Wesley Snipes set his
sights on playing Wakanda's warrior king.
In the mid-1990s, Snipes was enjoying some serious box office clout after a string of
hits, and wanted to bring Black Panther to the big screen, believing it could be a blockbuster
and cultural milestone.
Recently, Snipes told The Hollywood Reporter:
"Black Panther is an iconic character who much of the world was unfamiliar with and
the communities that I grew up in would love."
Snipes was right, too — he was just a quarter of a century too early.
In the mid-1990s, Batman was the only superhero making movies, CGI wasn't ready to realize
Wakanda, and Marvel even declared bankruptcy in 1996.
To make matters more difficult, when studios heard the name "Black Panther," they thought
of 1960s social revolutionaries rather than superheroes.
Snipes used the experience to launch the highly successful Blade franchise, while Black Panther
itself became the highest-grossing domestic superhero release nearly three decades later.
And Snipes couldn't be happier.
He said:
"Even though I am not a part of this particular project, I support it 1,000 percent, and I
am absolutely convinced that it will be a catalyst for change and open other doors and
other opportunities."
Over the years, the role of Bruce Banner has seemed like a never-ending game of musical
chairs.
After Eric Bana and before Edward Norton, the front runner to take the role was Fox
Mulder himself, David Duchovny.
Bana, who starred in Ang Lee's Hulk in 2003, dropped out of the franchise when he discovered
the sequel was set to be straight-to-DVD.
Duchovny's frontrunner status was revealed by Marvel's then-vice chairman Peter Cuneo
[CUE-nee-oh] back in 2006.
How close Duchovny came to getting the part is unclear, however; All we know is that he
obviously didn't get the role, and that the straight-to-DVD sequel to Lee's film was scrapped
altogether.
Instead, Edward Norton got the part in The Incredible Hulk, which basically rebooted
the franchise into the new continuity of the MCU after the successful debut of Iron Man
a year earlier.
Norton famously got himself fired from the franchise soon after, leaving Marvel on pretty
bad terms.
He was subsequently replaced by Mark Ruffalo, who has played the part to perfection ever
since.
"Hulk out!"
"Bruce."
"Dab!"
"Bruce."
"Listen to your mom!
She knows better."
Marvel has evidently wanted to work with Emily Blunt for some time now.
The British-born thespian has apparently been offered not one, but two critical roles in
the MCU — Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger and Black Widow in Iron
Man 2.
Of course, the former part went to Haley Atwell, while Scarlett Johansson has been a key player
in the Avengers movies and beyond ever since her MCU debut.
There are many reasons Blunt didn't take the Widow role, and she herself has claimed it
was all down to scheduling conflicts.
She refuses to discuss parts she didn't accept in detail, however, saying it's unfair to
the actors who ended up playing them.
Still, there are plenty of female roles still to come in the ever-expanding Marvel Universe,
so fingers crossed Blunt will turn up sometime in the not-so-distant future.
Emily Blunt wasn't the only member of her household to almost appear in the MCU.
Her husband, John Krasinski, very nearly donned the red, white and blue of the star-spangled
Avenger, Captain America.
As his role as Jack Ryan has proven, he's more than capable of playing a patriotic super-soldier
— but it wasn't Marvel who pulled the plug on Krasinski playing the part.
It was the actor himself.
According to Krasinski, he got as far as a costumed audition, during which he saw Chris
Hemsworth walk by in full Thor regalia.
In that moment, Krasinski realized what he was about to get himself into and had a change
of heart.
"Chris Hemsworth walked by as Thor, and he's like, 'hey mate,' and I'm like, 'I'm good.
This is stupid.
It's okay, I'm not Captain America.'"
Krasinski's decision may seem like madness to many, but if you've ever watched a behind-the-scenes
video of actors wearing $100,000 Halloween costumes and staring at ten-foot tennis balls
surrounded by green screens, you can probably see his point.
And hey, Chris Evans is nothing to be sniffed at, either.
How's this for a sibling rivalry?
Before Chris Hemsworth was cast as the god of thunder in 2011's Thor, his younger brother
Liam was one of the frontrunners for the part.
Early in his career, the tall and lanky Chris Hemsworth had been having trouble finding
parts that suited his frame, when he spotted a call sheet for Thor that required an actor
of at least 6'3" and 200 lbs.
Hemsworth auditioned for director Kenneth Branagh and thought he nailed it... but he
didn't hear back for months.
Meanwhile, his little brother Liam, still back home in Australia, had sent in a taped
audition and was subsequently called back several times.
Liam was one of the final five, in fact, when Chris' manager contacted the movie's casting
team, reminding them Liam had an older brother.
Chris got another audition and must have impressed this time, as he was cast in the role soon after.
As hard as it is to imagine anybody but Chris Pratt playing Peter Quill, Guardians of the
Galaxy director James Gunn had a backup plan for the part.
He once told GQ:
"There was a good chance that, if I didn't cast Chris, that I would've cast Glenn Howerton
in the role."
Howerton most famously plays the morally reprehensible Dennis on the long-running FX sitcom, It's
Always Sunny In Philadelphia, a character who is about as far away from Star-Lord as
you can possibly get.
"I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds!"
While Howerton would have done a fine job as Peter Quill, he arguably lacks the movie
star gravitas with which Chris Pratt helped send Guardians into the box office stratosphere.
Had Howerton played Star-Lord, Guardians of the Galaxy likely would have been widely regarded
as a quirky, under-the-radar space romp destined for cult classic status somewhere down the road.
Instead, with Pratt in the lead role, it became a surprise smash and one of the most successful
franchises in the Marvel pantheon.
Before he was the King of Atlantis, Jason Momoa was almost Drax the Destroyer.
The actor had previously played barbaric brutes such as Conan the Barbarian and Khal Drogo
in Game of Thrones, making him seem like the perfect fit for a character like Drax.
But this was the main reason why he didn't take the part.
Momoa didn't want to be typecast as a brutish heavy-hitter, and especially didn't want his
kids to see him miserable in his work as a result.
That said, Momoa did enjoy auditioning with Chris Pratt, later revealing:
"One of the funnest auditions I've ever done in my life was with him."
Momoa is also cool that WWE-World-Champ-turned-Hollywood-heavyweight Dave Bautista got the part.
He said:
"I think it's perfectly cast.
Dave is perfect for that role, for Drax."
Momoa would eventually get into the superhero game himself, taking the lead in Aquaman and
becoming one of DC's most successful cinematic heroes in the process.
Two of Hollywood's biggest Hollywood comedy heavyweights were also up for membership in
the Guardians of the Galaxy: Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler.
While still early in casting for the film, Marvel checked on the availability of each
of them.
It is uncertain, however, whether both actors were up for the same part, or for different
roles.
Understandably, there was speculation that they were up for the roles of Rocket Raccoon
and/or Groot.
As Marvel true believers know, those parts eventually went to Bradley Cooper and Vin
Diesel respectively, though it is fun to consider what Carrey and Sandler might have brought
to these characters.
Would Carrey's Rocket Raccoon have had the same mannerisms as Ace Ventura?
Could Sandler's Groot have said "I am Groot" in a voice similar to Bobby Boucher?
"One man said he wanted to decapitate me.
Nobody else thought that to be too bad of an idea."
All anyone can do is speculate.
Still, it's fair to say things turned out well in the end.
Having first appeared in a mid-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Scarlet
Witch has gone on to become one of the MCU's stalwart characters, even landing a full series
of her own in WandaVision.
For the whole time, the character has been performed by Elizabeth Olsen — but she wasn't
the only one up for the role.
In fact, the part of Wanda Maximoff was reportedly originally offered to Bronx-born, Dublin-raised
actor Saoirse Ronan.
When Ronan allegedly passed on the part, it went to Olsen.
And given the massive success of WandaVision on Disney+, the growing world and spinoffs
that came out of that series, and her connection to one Doctor Stephen Strange, it appears
that Olsen will continue cashing in her Marvel checks for some time to come.
Back in 2013, when Edgar Wright was still attached to direct Ant-Man, there were two
actors in the running for the part of the miniature marvel: Paul Rudd and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Gordon-Levitt was just one year removed from playing a version of Robin in Christopher
Nolan's final entry in The Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises.
At the time, Variety reported that he was one of the final two actors being considered
for the part, alongside Rudd, who had a series of leading roles in comedic hits under his
belt.
That may have been what gave Rudd the nod in the end, as Wright was apparently pushing
for an even more comedic tone than the other Marvel movies.
However, Gordon-Levitt later denied he was ever in the running, saying the rumors were
"nothing but lies."
Either way, it's all water under the bridge, as Paul Rudd has returned for two sequels
to Ant-Man and a number of other MCU movies, to boot.
Of course, it wasn't just the title role that was up for grabs when Edgar Wright was still
spearheading Ant-Man.
Two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Jessica Chastain was rumored to have been offered
the role of the movie's "female lead."
While sources originally speculated the role was that of original Wasp Janet van Dyne,
it's now obvious that she likely would have played Janet's daughter Hope, a part which
ended up going to Evangeline Lilly.
Janet, of course, would eventually be played by Michelle Pfeiffer in 2018's Ant-Man and
the Wasp.
An actor of Jessica Chastain's caliber certainly would have given the lighthearted, action-packed,
bug-centric romp some gravitas, much like Hollywood legend Michael Douglas did in the
role of Dr. Hank Pym.
Maybe we'll see her in the MCU somewhere down the road.
Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix was apparently not only in the running, but
the front runner to play the part of Marvel's favorite sorcerer, Doctor Stephen Strange.
Marvel wanted Phoenix for the role so much, in fact, that he was rumored to be in final
negotiations before talks broke down.
According to the acclaimed actor, it had nothing to do with Marvel's more mainstream brand
of entertainment.
He later explained:
"I think they make some great, fun movies.
I enjoy those movies sometimes, and I think they keep the f---ing industry going in some
ways, so I don't have a problem with it at all...
I think everybody was really happy with how things turned out.
All parties were satisfied."
Basically, we have no idea what the issue was, but in any event, Phoenix didn't take
the part and it went to Benedict Cumberbatch instead.
Phoenix, true to his word that he has no problem with comic book films, later played the genre's
most infamous villain in Joker.
In the late 1990s, pretty much every actor who could convincingly play Spider-Man was
considered for the part.
Sometimes, "convincingly" wasn't even a consideration, and some unusual choices outright lobbied
for the role, from Charlie Sheen to Michael Jackson.
Obviously, not all of these people were seriously considered — in the 2000s, however, Tobey
Maguire put on the mask for three movies, before being replaced by Andrew Garfield in
the Amazing Spider-Man films.
Cut to 2015 and Spider-Man was being recast, this time for the MCU.
Again, everybody under the age of 22 was under consideration, and among the final choices
were Asa Butterfield and Tom Holland.
Spoiler Alert: Holland got it.
Even so, Butterfield isn't disappointed, later telling Collider:
"Every so often there's a part that you really want [...] and you don't get it.
And it is tough and it is s---, but I often find that something even better comes out
of it at the end.
And so in the case of Spider-Man, I did [Sex Education]."
It's hard to picture anyone but Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury — but apparently, Jackson
wasn't the first actor approached.
In fact, that honor goes to George Clooney.
Honestly, you can actually kinda see this working, especially if they were going for
the gray templed, skirt-chasing, 1960s-style super spy version of the character.
And Clooney even considered taking the role, at least enough to pick up a copy of Fury,
the 2001 comic written by Garth Ennis.
That, however, turned out to be a big mistake.
Clooney was reportedly horrified by the absurdly violent series.
Apparently, the scene that particularly killed Clooney's interest in the MCU involved Fury
strangling a man with his own intestines.
Meanwhile, Mark Millar and Brian Hitch's The Ultimates had already reimagined Nick Fury
as a certain iconic Hollywood star, and so, in a case of life imitating art, Samuel L.
Jackson was given the part.
Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow go together like salt and, well, Pepper.
However, the Academy Award-winning Paltrow was not Iron Man director Jon Favreau's first
choice for the part of Pepper Potts.
In fact, the director was so high on his main choice that the Iron Man script was sent exclusively
to Favreau's favorite: Rachel McAdams.
Back in the mid-2000s, McAdams was still basking in the warm afterglow of Mean Girls and The
Notebook, and consequently had her pick of parts.
Evidently Iron Man's love interest wasn't high on her list of priorities, though apparently
The Time Traveler's Wife was.
"I wouldn't change anything."
While McAdams wasn't to play a part in Marvel's inception, she later took the role of Stephen
Strange's love interest, Dr. Christine Palmer, in Doctor Strange — and is due to return
in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Perhaps Master of Mystic Arts is more her type than billionaire military arms industrialist?
Among the most prized of all female superhero roles are characters such as Wonder Woman,
Catwoman, and Storm.
But after the multi-billion dollar success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lesser-known
characters suddenly came into play as potential blockbuster heroines.
One of these was Carol Danvers, otherwise known as Captain Marvel. 25 years ago, Danvers
was most famous to comic book fans as the superhero who X-Men character Rogue put into
a coma when she stole her powers.
Now, her popularity rivals that of Wonder Woman.
That's quite the turnaround.
Before Oscar-winner Brie Larson snagged the part, however, a few other big names wanted
to play Captain Marvel.
At a press junket for Jurassic World, Bryce Dallas Howard revealed that she wanted to
play a part in a Marvel movie.
When interviewer Eric Eisenberg suggested Captain Marvel, Howard responded:
"Yes, let's start a campaign now.
That would be rad."
Another actress who shared her enthusiasm was Olivia Wilde.
When Meadowland director Reed Morano tweeted to the film's star, Olivia Wilde, that they
should work on Captain Marvel together, Wilde tweeted back:
"Oh hell yea.
Let's do this."
While we can't say either Howard or Wilde were "almost" Captain Marvel, we can be reasonably
sure that they would have jumped at the opportunity.
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