7) Heath Ledger
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He might be known for the most critically-lauded supervillain performance of all-time for his chilling rendition of the Joker in The Dark Knight, but Heath Ledger could have been cast as a superhero instead on two separate occasions. He almost played the lead role in Batman Begins before Christian Bale was cast and, earlier than that, he was the first choice to play a certain wallcrawler, too.
According to the late actor’s agent Steve Alexander, it was Ledger who turned the part down. Alexander later revealed:
“Sony asked me to come over and read the script for Spider-Man. It was going to be a really cool tentpole movie…But as soon as I said Spider-Man Heath said, ‘It’s not for me. I would be taking someone else’s dream away.”