10 Unbelievable Superhero Movie Castings That Almost Happened

It takes a special actor to take a role that millions have loved on the page for decades and bring it to life in a way that satisfies the majority of fans. Thankfully, most of the major superhero movies have found the right star to steer their franchise. We're thinking your Robert Downeys, Hugh Jackmans and Christian Bales. Even the ones that haven't worked out so well, you can still see what they were going for. For instance, the cast of 2015's Fantastic Four. Other times, however, Hollywood studios make some very left-field choices when it comes to drawing up the casting call shortlists. The following ten stars are just a few examples of the unbelievable casting choices that almost happened in your favourite superhero movies. The men on this list are here either because they're a particularly poor fit for the character or because they're someone you would never think to associate with a superhero movie. Admittedly, we are curious to see how some of these might have worked out, but on the whole, we really can't believe that these actors were ever considered to play these roles. 10) Nicolas Cage (Superman) Let’s start with perhaps the most famous almost-superhero casting in movie history. After the success of his Batman films, Tim Burton was hired to helm a Superman reboot titled Superman Lives. Despite the project going through several redrafts from different writers (including Kevin Smith), and a release date planned for 1998, the movie eventually disintegrated. Nevertheless, Burton did hire his (peculiar) choice for the Man of Steel when the film was still operational – and it was none other than self-confessed comic book fan Nicolas Cage. Though he didn’t get to shoot any material, Cage attended several costume fittings. As you can see, he would have sported a mullet and a more metallic outfit. We’ve no idea how the actor would have fared in the role - Burton wanted to emphasize the alien outsider part to Superman's character, which we guess Cage could have played quite well - but his casting has become the stuff of movie legend ever since. 9) Charlie Sheen (Spider-Man) Nowadays, Spider-Man is such a surefire cinematic hit that three different actors have played the role in the last ten years. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, however, it wasn't so easy to get the webslinger on screen, as various versions were mooted and then booted. Most famously, James Cameron wanted to do a Spidey movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. The most unlikely almost-Spidey, though, has to be Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen. We kid you not. Charlie Sheen was almost Spider-Man. Well, at least according to the man himself. Apparently, Sheen tried to get the movie rights for the character back in the 80s, and pitched the idea to Orion – the studio that later made Oscar winners Platoon and Silence of the Lambs. Here’s what he later explained: “I had an office at Orion at the time, and I brought them Spider-Man. I said, ‘Look, in a couple of years, I’ll be too old to play Peter Parker.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we’re just thinking that cartoons are not the future, comic books are not the future.’ And I said, ‘But it’s Spider-man, I’m perfect.’ And they were like, ‘Nah, we’re gonna wait.’” Unfortunately for Sheen, there was no “winning” this role. 8) Jack Black (Green Lantern) Before Ryan Reynolds took the role in the underwhelming Green Lantern movie in 2011, there was almost a very different take on the character; a superhero comedy starring Jack Black. In a script by Hotel Transylvania’s Robert Smigel, the Green Lantern Ring would get sent to the wrong person: Black’s Jud Plato, a reality TV star. Obviously, this leads to comedic hijinks ensuing. Black was very excited for the project, but the plug was ultimately pulled on it. He later said: “They didn’t want to pull the trigger. They were making zillions of dollars with all their other superhero movies – they didn’t want to mess with that formula.” Clearly, this Green Lantern movie was a little ahead of its time and might well have been made today, in this new age of more experimental superhero films. 7) Joaquin Phoenix (Hulk) It took a while before Marvel found the perfect Bruce Banner. First, Eric Bana played the role in Ang Lee's ponderous Hulk and then Edward Norton took over for 2008's so-so The Incredible Hulk. For The Avengers, things finally fell into place when Mark Ruffalo nabbed the role of the big green rage monster. Before Ruffalo signed along the dotted line, though, a much more left-field choice was rumoured to get the part. Joaquin Phoenix is most known for intense roles, so on the one hand you can imagine him playing a character like Banner, with his anger issues and a monster hiding under the surface. However, the three-time Oscar nominee isn't known for his blockbuster roles - save maybe Gladiator. Funnily enough, though, Phoenix was also in the running to play another Marvel superhero later on; this time Doctor Strange. From what we can gather, he was the second choice for the role if Benedict Cumberbatch proved unavailable. 6) Jim Carrey (Loki) Tom Hiddleston's Loki is one of the biggest breakout success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Certainly, the manipulative, Shakespearean supervillain is the greatest antagonist the franchise has created. It's odd to think, then, that the character could have been taken in a very different direction if one of the early choices for the part had got the role. Allegedly, the studio's original number one pick was Jim Carrey. You can see what they were thinking - the rubber-faced, energetic actor seems like a perfect fit for the God of Mischief. Oddly enough, Carrey had previously starred in The Mask, in which he played a character gifted god-like powers by a mask created by the Norse god Loki. We've no idea if Carrey was actually offered the role or not, but we can imagine that his name was wiped off the list of contenders when director Kenneth Branagh came along and transformed the character into a much more serious version. 5) Tom Hiddleston (Thor) So, how did Tom Hiddleston get the role that made his name, then? Well, initially, he had actually set his sights on playing Loki's brother, Thor! It's hard to imagine now, but at first, Hiddleston really threw himself into nabbing the lead role. The British actor worked hard to gain twenty pounds of muscle in time for his screen-test. However, when Branagh saw him he decided that Hiddleston would be a much better fit for Loki. And so, the actor had to go on a strict diet and train in the Brazillian martial art of Capoeira in order to shed the muscles he had acquired in time to play Loki. While we're at it, another unlikely British actor was in the running to play the God of Thunder. None other than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. Craig turned it down though because, in his words, it would have been "too much of a power trip" to play both Bond and Thor. A bunch of other actors were also considered for the role, including Alexander Skarsgard (whose father ended up playing Erik Selvig in the movie) and Chris Hemworth's brother, Liam. 4) Keanu Reeves (Plastic Man) And now, for one of the strangest superhero movies that never happened. Back in the 1990s, a film based on obscure DC hero Plastic Man was in the works. And none other than future Matrix directors, the Wachowski siblings, were behind it. After making their sci-fi magnum opus, the pair restarted the project and even courted a leading man. Bizarrely, they wanted Neo himself, Keanu Reeves. The mooted movie was floating around until as late as 2008, where its future apparently depended on the reception to The Dark Knight. After that movie was a massive success, Plastic Man was one of many DC films to be cancelled - along with Batman vs. Superman (the first version) and Justice League Mortal. And so, alas, we never got to see the stony-faced Reeves attempt to play an out-and-out comedic character like Plastic Man. 3) Russell Crowe (Wolverine) You might know that, before Hugh Jackman landed the role which made him a pop culture icon, Scottish actor Dougray Scott was originally cast in X-Men - before he left the movie to star in Mission: Impossible II. What you might not know is that Jackman was still not the second choice: that honour went to Gladiator star Russell Crowe. We don't have a lot of information on why Crowe turned the part down, but it might have something to do with his strange request for the role: apparently, he agreed to play Wolverine, but only if he could play him bald. Exactly why the actor so desperately wanted to portray the character with no hair we'll likely never know. Interestingly, Hugh Jackman later publicly thanked Crowe for recommending him, when he pulled himself out of the running. 2) Tom Cruise (Iron Man) Just like we couldn't imagine anyone else but Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine, Robert Downey Jr. just is Iron Man. Things could have turned out very differently, though, as he only landed the part back in the 2008 film after Tom Cruise passed up the opportunity. The Mission: Impossible star's connection to Tony Stark had actually gone back a whole decade. In 1998, Cruise was attached to star and produce an Iron Man movie - and Quentin Tarantino of all people was approached to direct. The project was continually reshuffled over the years and eventually, Cruise took himself out of the running. Here's what he had to say about the decision at the time: “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.” 1) Bill Murray (Batman) When there’s something strange in the neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Batman, obviously. We’ve saved the weirdest until last with this one. Though it seems hard to believe, Bill Murray was apparently in the running to play Batman back in the 1980s. Before Tim Burton nabbed the director’s seat, Ghostbusters’ Ivan Reitman was set to helm the new Batman movie. Alongside the tantalizing idea of David Bowie as the Joker, Reitman wanted to cast his old collaborator Bill Murray as the Dark Knight. David Letterman asked the actor about the role in 2014, to which Murray didn’t elaborate on the details but simply said: “God, I would have been an awesome Batman.” Joking aside, Murray has proven his dramatic acting range in more recent years, so perhaps he isn’t as ridiculous a choice as he first seems to be. Actually, no, it’s still pretty crazy.